The thing to look for is y seams or something similar. I try to make the paper pieced pattern as simple as possible. The second pattern would have had a y seam when left as a whole. So I broke it down to another level.
Another way to look at it, is to check how things are going to be pieced. Do you have a seam that will not be workable by machine? You want to do all seams by machine, presumably.
Do you have a particular pattern you are working with?