Yup, and besides the counter-clockwise for consistency, I would like them even more if:

* Each stroke were 1 bit, so the numerals would be just a more "compact" representation for binary numbers.

* Even better if they can be represented with a seven-segment display (or other similar displays).

(Though I can't blame them, since these two things didn't even exist back then.)

Glyphs have to be written in an orientation; bidirection (or higher symmetric) layouts would impose either writing the words left to right & right to left, which would cause smearing when writing with ink with a dominant hand, or mirroring the glyphs themselves, which would make reading & writing words much more difficult.