Yep, it's all about sku management. Both OEMs and the aftermarket tried doing true directional as far back as the 80's and it quickly became an inventory and replacement nightmare. Also limits your options for tire rotation. So pretty much everyone has dropped this in favour of faux directional, the logic being you can never see both sides of the car at once and therefore the vast majority of the road-going populace will be none the wiser.
As far as aero effects and range extending goes, the best result is usually achieved with a solid disc. The only reason you would want any kind of "effect" would be to either scoop air in or extract it out (and it's almost always the latter so as to take advantage of the positive pressure that exists beneath the chassis) in order to cool the brakes. Great for race cars but not so much needed on an EV. So I suspect these aero covers are designed very much like all the other high-efficiency ones we've seen, that is to achieve the minimum required brake ventilation while doing as little as possible to disturb the airflow.
Yours is basically a perfect answer to the query. Problem is...? That still doesn't satisfy my own personal sense of
'rightness' with the world. Very few cars have used OEM turbines that were specific to left & right sides of the cars. Offhand, I only remember some being on Chevrolet Corvette and Honda Prelude. Other cars that should have had directional wheels (Pontiac Firebird, Grand Am, and Grand Prix) did not. It still bugs me when I see a Prelude with the wheels misapplied. And you are correct in that the grand majority of the populace doesn't notice at all. But I do.
It's like when I noticed that on cars with flip up headlights, it seems to always be the one on the left side of the car that is permanently stuck in the UP position. I can tell that is because someone designed the right side headlight first, then lazily flipped the plans to represent the left side headlight, without realizing that one critical component would work its way out of place in that orientation, leaving it stuck in the UP position after a while. Yeah, I really hate turbine/windmill wheels for precisely the reason that it gets on my nerves that even when it is possible to apply them the
'right' way people do it wrong anyway. And it gets even worse for me to see the wheels cutting INTO the wind on one side of the car, but spinning WITH the wind on the other side.
What is that term again...? Ah, yes...
'Obsessive Compulsive'. I may not actually have that disorder, but I do notice things that bug me. Meh.
'A Man's Got to Know His Limitations' and stuff. Another example? How everyone in my Family -- each and every household -- insists upon loading up the toilet paper dispenser in the bathroom the exact WRONG way. I'll leave you to figure out which way that is...
