sliding windows - does the direction of slide matter?

The crank out window in the kitchen is, like QCMan suggests, probably to allow cooking in the rain. However, the different styles on the overhead bunk (crank out on the left/slider on the right) is perplexing to me. Wonder why the manufacturer did that?

BTW, sliders are manufactured in both directions as well. However, as others have suggested, you should be able to fix/rebuild the crank mechanism relatively cheaply.