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If you're going to do this, why not just tilt it up to match your latitude and point it generally north? It's easy to track objects if you do that.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I see zero advantages to doing this instead of just using it as the equatorial mount it was designed to be.

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With altaz mode, one remote control knob will move the telescope tube left to right, and the other knob will move it up and down. While looking through the telescope you can move along in the sky anywhere you want, by turning the two knobs.

With equatorial mode, the remote control knobs will not move the telescope tube in this logical left/right and up/down manner. Instead it's like having a steering wheel on a car that is not directly connected to the wheels. It's difficult to steer it to where you want it. With equatorial mode you need the coordinates of an object, and then set the setting circles on the telescope to the same coordinates. You can't move and explore the sky spontaneously with the two knobs.

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Sure you can. You can point anywhere in the sky you want, too, except maybe very close to the pole (alt-az mounts have this problem near the zenith). It takes a little getting used to, but not a lot, and in exchange tracking is significantly easier - you only need to move one axis to track.

If you set an equatorial mount up with the polar axis horizontal, as suggested in the post I responded to, it will not behave the way you just describe. Which of the slow-motion controls will cause the telescope to move up and down, or left and right, depends on where in the sky you're looking, unlike a true alt-az. It will also be very difficult to point to objects in the directions the polar axis is pointed due to a condition known as gimbal lock. This is the same in the polar region for an equatorial and near the zenith for an alt-az, but now you have two of them.

Let's review the cons to setting up this way:
Still need the counterweight (alt-az may not).
Counterweight hits the tripod.
Need two motions to track (eq needs just one).
Slow-motion controls don't move the telescope in a left-right-up-down manner (alt-az does, if that's what you want).
Gimbal lock in two directions instead of one.
Still need to do a meridian flip (alt-az doesn't, except when passing near zenith).

Now, lets review the pros:
<crickets>

Equatorial and alt-az mounts each have certain advantages. Setting up an equatorial mount with the polar axis level has none of the advantages of either, as far as I can tell, and none of its own (unless you're near the equator, then it's an equatorial mount if you align the PA north-south).

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