You already summarized it.....it depends.
My high end floorstanders with their side firing woofers have their OEM manual direction to experiment both ways .....depending on speaker placement within the room, and room acoustics strengths and warts.
My high end floorstanders with their side firing woofers have their OEM manual direction to experiment both ways .....depending on speaker placement within the room, and room acoustics strengths and warts.