I think (though my memory may be off) that the original alphas had the north marker at a 45⁰ angle and as a result the directions were a bit confusing: if that was the case I would imagine someone took the executive decision to move north to a more obvious direction.
As it is, I agree that having the physical map effectively rotated 90⁰ is confusing and as someone who's tried to figure out how to piece together the various bits of Rivellon it's not terribly helpful, but also not especially unexpected!
