I have never been compimented on the distance being right, except when laying out a cross country course, I guess its rare in that game.
I have however been complimented by visiting runners on acurate splits.
On one 15K where a volinter put the 6 mile sign at the right place, but facing the wrong way near a turn around, I heard all about it. So splits matter.
It seems to me that the certificaton map for a race REQUIRES the direction of the start and the direction of the course on it. It seems that it's certified if you run that way. The reverse may be about the same distance but its not as per the cert and so not certified. I did a loop course a couple of years ago where I thaught it may get use in both directions so I did two certs with two sets of rides, maps and certificates, one clockwise and one anti-clockwise. The starts and finish were on a road in the center of the loop. So the two, left and right versions are diffrent cert numbers. BUT you still have to start from the common start line. If a race director wanted to start from the finish, and finish on the start, I think it would require a new set of rides for a new cert, with new splits.
Once you tell RD's that they can ignore bits of the cert requirement, like where the start and finsh are, or the direction runners go, you are opening it up for them to use other creative interpritations.