I, actually, DO have an issue with the practice, and a major one at that. The very idea that the Maronites, alone in the Orient and East, did this is a laughable piece of revisionist fiction. So, in a word, no, it is NOT traditional. What it is, in fact, is monkey-see monkey-do.
It got its start just after the same trend began in the Latin Church, meaning it’s a post-conciliar innovation. It had its beginnings in the US (no surprise there) after 1965 and spread gradually to the Patriarchal Territories. 
As with any historical revisionist claim, I ask that it be substantiated with primary sources [or at least secondary sources that use primary sources]. One can clearly tell that is baseless revisionism if they look at older Maronite churches that have, for the most part, been left unchanged. What comes to mind is Mort Marina in the Holy Valley - it’s basically a church front built around a grotto with a latin style altar against the rocks - impossible to say mass versus populum.
Not a true concession. Within the Roman Church, there are several bits of exceptions to the “facing east with the people.”
These are essentially the same thing, (I know of the Major Basilicas and one or two other places in Rome – never heard of one in France), where there is a confessio beneath the sanctuary. The altar faces east, more-or-less overlooking the confessio. But that doesn’t exactly translate into versus populum. Neither does “free-standing” equate with “versus populum” as is so often suggested. All the great cathedrals in Europe (and long pre-Trent) had free-standing altars used ad orientem. And of course there are post-Trent and pre-1965 churches there and elsewhere that have free-standing altars, traditionally used ad orientem, as well.
Which “monastic Rites” are those? I’m intimately familiar with the concept of choir, where the monks (or friars) face one another across the chancel. AFAIK, in the oldest structures, the altar was usually situated to the end of the choir, so again, we don’t exactly have versus populum there either.
It is one thing for monastics to gather around the altar, if that is truly their ancient tradition, but it is quite another matter for the laity to do so. The latter has no place in any tradition.
Interesting question. There are those who prefer it, (at least as a place-holder for a true restoration as envisioned by our early 20th Century Patriarchs), but AFAIK, it’s not been done publicly.
it was the norm in the early church, both in houses and catecombs, as attested by surviving wall paintings, and not uncommon in the underground UGCC and Ruthenian GCC under communism… especially when the kitchen table was used for liturgy.
There are also catacomb altars that were built against the wall such as would not allow the congregation to “gather round”. Regardless, doctrine and praxis develops and what the early Church may or may not have done is not always our model. The extraordinary circumstances of celebrating the liturgy under persecution is obviously an exception in a lot of ways…but that doesn’t mean that the ideal doesn’t remain celebrating the liturgy within a proper temple.