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I’m sure the buttons are of the finest sort.

That doesn’t invalidate a subjective eval that touch is fine for this context and an objective conjecture that physical buttons would lose orientation if orientation were changed 90°.

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I don't see why you think physical buttons would lose orientation. My kindle had forward and back buttons on both sides that worked fine in either orientation, and on devices that only have one button per side the one on the bottom is next and the one on top is previous.

I now understand your point about the physical button orientation remaining the same but the human-computer model shifting from a book-like right-left pagination to a computer-like scroll pagination. That is interesting to consider. Thank you.

I believe the default touch zones on new ereaders are in fact still shaped like interlocking L's, with the right side and most of the bottom counting as Next and the left side and most of the top counting as Previous.

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