"I’ve been reading through old posts about the best way to orient a house to maximize sun exposure . . . "

Read the parts about taking a list of your needs and wants and site survey to your competent local architect and have them walk the site with you to address your dream. You are handicapping yourself when you try to take a design/layout to an architect.

I think it’s totally fine to say to an architect we don’t want a deep home, we would like x rooms facing this direction, it’s important to have x room etc. I wouldn’t do anymore than you have though and be prepared for it to change.

We simply told the architect the minimum sq. footage, number of bedrooms and Bauhaus-style. None of the architects or architectural technologists have ever walked our lots.

Of course, "here I am stuck in the city with no place to go" we've never had much choice of location diversity.

You should acquaint yourself with passive solar principles. What good are great views that require you creating an oven to see them during daylight hours? Porches can help with that, but you WILL lose direct sun and direct views into the house. That isn’t a bad thing, when it’s the bad sun.

In some ways you are really fortunate that your good views are to the north where there is zero solar gain downside to having an abundance of windows - AND they will still provide nice filtered light.

For the south - you can manage the solar gain by overhangs that block the summer sunn (higher in the sky) but let in sun in the winter months where the sun is lower in the sky.

I don't know anything abut your lot size, trees, or topography, but the first thing I would do is rotate the house 45°. This means you don't have windows facing directly west, and you can have rooms facing the lake on 3 sides.

After that, let your architect figure out how to give you everything you need and want, in a way that suits the site.

South facing windows don't let in any more summer light because of the necessary overhangs. North windows will let in the same light. What this means, you need a good lighting plan. Especially for the kitchen. Task lighting for all the work zones for use day and night. Ambient lighting throughout the house. West windows will be most challenging because overhangs won't be enough to keep the heat out.