Yeah, crap getting in the gears. Which is more of a problem than getting in a belt pulley.
The real innovation here would be to have an offset shaft with a hypoid tooth profile which would allow it to be lower and to the side, making some room for the motor to come further in. Hypoid teeth are of course difficult to profile hence expensive.
Or just put the shaft to the outside of the diff crownwheel on the opposite side to the motor and have a completely assymetrical gearbox (kinda like the DF03)