Some thoughts ....
LAQ ... if there's a lot of bulk, yes they'd like them pressed whichever way will minimize the bulk. At least my LAQ does. She's showed me how with too much bulk in one point, it's hard for her to keep an even pattern and stitch across that. It doesn't matter so much which way, as it does for handquilting (see below)
Handquilting ... flipped them directionally, and the quilting was done on the single layered area. Harder for them to quilt thru multi-layers. And was important to make sure all were flipped in same direction from one block to the other, to do consistent quilting.
Seam strength ... is it such an issue now, with most of us machine stitching, with modern threads/fabrics and our ability to adjust stitch length? Perhaps it was more so when the quilts were hand stitched?
Light to Dark ... the conventional way, to avoid dark shadows coming thru onto the lights.
Which way to flip ... one teacher I've had says forget about light/dark ... see which way the block wants to send it. Sometimes it's more natural in one direction or the other. And too, the bulk minimization consideration comes in there too.
I'll Look forward to reading further comments about these thoughts.