For the record, until Campagnolo invented the derailleur in the 1930, racing bikes used in the Tour de France (among others) had flip-flop hubs with one side for the flats and the other side for the hills. So it's not a new idea at all and works just fine....
In the book "The Dancing Chain" they claim Tulio's inspiration for inventing the precursor to derailleurs was exactly this circumstance, stopping at the bottom of the hill in a spring snow storm to flip the wheel. You're in Upstate NY, would you ride a flip-flop in the winter?