Some advantages, of which the first one probably tops any list:
The weight of the engines reduces the wing tip up bending effects of lift allowing a lighter wing structure.
It may be a little easier to arrange for a suitable structural fuse that allows the engine to break free from a wing pylon under engine seizure or other severe event.
Routine maintenance access can be easier as the engines are likely to be closer to the ground.
Although engines are normally certificated on the basis that they will contain any blades they shed, this does not always happen in practice. Moving the engines out on the wing can help following such an event. Certainly the closer engines are together the easier it is for a bad structural event in one to damage another.
The whole business of choosing an overall aircraft configuration is a compromise of many issues.