I disagree. You want to get some charge into the battery on the disabled vehicle because there is probably too much resistance in the jump leads to power the starter motor directly, especially if the leads are a bit cheap. You need some contribution of current from the flat battery too, and that means charging it a little first. That means connecting as close as possible to the battery, really.
Get a car with a properly flat battery (as I had last night

) and you'll find it needs the jump leads connected for a few minutes with the donor engine running before it will turn over.
The main reason for the recommendation to make the final negative connection to a lifting eye or similar is that there will be a spark when you connect it, and the battery is a potential source of hydrogen and oxygen, so could explode given a spark at its' negative terminal.