Under NY law, the parties in a civil action are allowed to submit to the judge proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law, which allows counsel an opportunity to define, if not control the narrative. In addition, the trial judge is required to articulate the factual basis for its decision.
With few exceptions, jurors are not required to justify their verdicts, and even if the trial judge or appeals court disagrees with the verdict, it will allow the verdict to stand, even if it would have reached a different conclusion.
In other words, judicial decisions resulting from a bench trial are much more transparent than jury verdicts and as a result, there is a greater chance of overturning a bench decision than a jury verdict on appeal..
In either case there have to be admissible facts to support the judgment on the record and in a jury trial the instructions, both those accepted and those denied, provide a legal foundation for the appeal.