EDIT
Second observation - even more confused. I hadn't accepted the crop - instead I'd entered a new mode with no more editing possible - only the four unlabelled icons in the top right (you get the impression I really hate unlabelled icons? Google 'mystery meat'...)
So I'm trying to wrap my head around the conceptual model. I can do multiple things to my image - but the crop doesn't give me a preview until I accept all the edits. So how am I meant to crop then flip or some other combination?