Why can’t we install keyboard switches backwards?

I’ve been looking for a 65% mechanical keyboard with north-facing LEDs. You wouldn’t think that would be difficult, but it is. Most of the better mechanical keyboards I’ve found have south-facing LEDs. That’s fine if you don’t care about illuminated keycap legends, but I do. I’ve got some Awekeys shine-through keycaps coming, and I’d like to be able to see the legends. There’s another complication. Many mechanical switches are designed to transmit light primarily through one side of the housing. The location of the LED on the PCB, the orientation of the switch, and the location of the legend on the keycap all must work together. Sometimes they don’t. That got me thinking. Why can’t we just turn the switches around? A switch is a switch. A conventional MX-compatible mechanical keyboard switch is a simple electrical device. It has two contacts that are either connected or disconnected. It doesn’t care which contact is connected to the row of the keyboard matrix and which is connected to…

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