Is the patio you mention under the porch roof or does it extend out from the patio? I'm not clear on what you mean by "pointing straight out over the patio."

My questions are where will you be sitting? What about prevailing winds? That might determine where you want the nozzles to point.

FWIW, we had a pergola that was 12 feet tall, and we put one of those inexpensive mister kits from Lowe's in. Due to water supply location, we put on the interior edge of the pergola, pointing diagonally down and towards the middle of the patio directly under the pergola (directly at our patio chairs). We would have the wind blow large clouds of mist away fairly consistently (not cooling us). Our mister was so high over our heads (12 feet) that it had a bit of a problem reaching us if we had wind. Buuut, if it was still, sometimes we had too much mist directly on us, making us and the chairs uncomfortably wet.

We ended up getting those spiral hose-end misters and replacing the nozzles frequently, and just dealing with our legs being wet.

Maybe you can get nozzles that are re-positionable. That way, once you have your system installed, you can finesse the pointing of the mist to work as you need it. Hope this helps.

The patio is attached to the back of the house and is about 8-9 feet deep. Right now the misters are positioned along the outside edge of the patio pointing straight down and about 7 feet off the ground.

What I am wondering is - would they work better for us if I pointed them inward at 90 degrees so the mist went out over the heads of those in the patio.

Yes, it sounds like it would be better 90 degrees inward. I am guessing that the way it's positioned now, you are not getting a breeze inward to blow the mist towards patio sitters? If the mist doesn't reach you, it's not going to cool you.

When you face it inward, you will have to see the "throw" of the mist (how far it sprays inward) to see if you may need to re-situate your furniture, etc, so it doesn't soak people.