This is how mine were installed ... it's just a bigger hole to drill in the cabinets, which isn't a great thing, but as long as you're committed to the hardware then it's no big deal.

I had ordered a sample of a square knob that I was considering. It had two projections on either side of the screw hole that would have made indents into the wood when the screws were tightened ... their function was to keep the square knobs in place so they wouldn't tilt one way or the other and would always be straight. However, as sailorgirl points out, some hardware requires a bigger "commitment" than others. I wasn't sure if I'd like the square knobs in the long term, and having those indents in the wood might limit my choices should I decide to change them out.

yes that is pretty standard for this style

The very similar Amerock cup pulls that I have on my printer stand are the same. It has to be this way because there is no depth at that point on the front for the screw threads to go into. To have the necessary depth without a projection, the screws would have to be moved toward the center of the cup where they would reduce the amount of finger space. The projection allows the screw threads space to grab onto the pull in the wall of the drawer allowing the body of the pull in front of the drawer face to be thin.

It isn't a significantly greater commitment than other pulls. If some time in the future you wanted to replace these pulls with something with the same screw placement but no projections, plugs could be glued into the big holes and a smaller hole for the screw drilled into the plugs. The body of the new pull would probably cover the plug since any screw is going to need something about that wide to screw into.

thanks! All the little things you don't consider. like the fact that our light fixture shades are too shallow for 100w CFLs.