It looks like a design tradeoff between the ideal orientation and how your hand goes in to pick up an airpod from the case.
Try making a mockup of the case with them rotated, and think about how your hand picks an airpod up. If the stems were on the outside (following the same orientation as it'd be when word), you then have to make your hand go toward the center of the case for each airpod.
I guess the rotation and the way to pick them up are two separate things. With the rotation, I think maybe just 60 degrees rotation, so that the speaker is pointing forward, could make huge difference. It just feels very unnatural now, but I expect Apple has tested this thoroughly.
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[ 4.6 ms ] story [ 15.3 ms ] threadTry making a mockup of the case with them rotated, and think about how your hand picks an airpod up. If the stems were on the outside (following the same orientation as it'd be when word), you then have to make your hand go toward the center of the case for each airpod.