I can appreciate the logic behind low-normal for an RD, especially if one is using bar-end shifters. I've bumped the shifter with my knee on a steep climb, and that ain't no fun (have also had a cable slip, or a shifter loosen up, and I'd much rather have it inadvertently go into a lower gear than a higher one..). And it makes sense (to me, at least) that with ba-ends in low/climbing gears the levers would be pointing down and more out-of-the-way.