A side wall suction is pretty standard stuff with quite a few builders, especially in vinyl pools.
As long as you have a bottom drain and a skimmer, it's fine. I only have a skimmer and a side wall drain. No bottom drain.
MDX is a system that is designed to stop entrapment. The sidewall port you are talking about is a relief suction so if something were to block the main drains it would pull water from the side port allowing the offending piece to get away from the main drain.
To be safe there should either be dual main drains, a side wall suction and a main drain, or an SVRS system. If there is just a single MDX drain and no second drain/suction port (skimmers don't count) and no SVRS system then the system is not safe and they should fix it.
I'm planning to install the MDX-R3 drain system myself in my new pool. The side drain is an important part of the system to prevent entrapment. You can go to the link below to Paramount's website about the system. I would ask the PB to rectify the problem.
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