Walt
For example, if I'm flying an armadillo at an enemy ship, I want to come in facing sideways so that the enemy can't shoot into my guns. Right now I use set flight direction to right (my ship's "forward" is the upper right), but this results in my ship turning further than necessary, which makes my movement slower and means I'll take longer to turn forward again. Another example: I have a large cannon wall that is partially diagonal (2:3 H:W ratio). Right now I either have to set flight direction to top or upper right, neither of which reflects the orientation of the ship.
Generally, flight direction is a powerful piloting tool. Plenty of times I'll need to alter or reverse the flight direction to back away from the perimeter (turning would take too long), or fly at an off angle so that my guns stay facing multiple enemies. There are work-arounds; for example, when in chaotic combat I usually issue move commands inside my ship radius so that I can force the ship to fly in exactly the way I want it to (and ignore collision avoidance).
More flight directions isn't a huge change or anything, it just adds a little more finesse to the sometimes clunky controls. If it's a significant amount of work to add (or if there's some other disadvantage) it's probably not worth it.
