Same thing happens with the Neo A3, because differently from the A2 it lits the buttons for ease of use in dark environment. I have to admit it never crossed my mind the possibility to use both sides of these devices at the same time.
There's also an additional difference in power saving behaviour between the standard A2 Lite & A2 Lite backlit, & the standard Neo A3 & Neo A3 backlit too. (The backlit A2 Lite/A3 variants essentially behave the same as the W2 variant.)
I agree, they were never really designed or intended for using both sides simultaneously, even if the older variants do actually allow it.
Although, if it was a common feature I still doubt many would even consider using the keyboard side if it was inactive/down facing for obvious reasons. Additionally, the gyros would also be
completely reversed on all possible axis when the remote is flipped over too, so that becomes a comedy of errors as well. (I tried using the fly mode by reversing the actual display & by the time I had messed around attempting to get the cursor anywhere near my intended target (let alone actually hit it), I could have simply flipped the remote over & back again multiple times
. (However, I guess with extended practice one could eventually reprogram the brain accordingly but it would take serious time & effort & there are probably easier workarounds.) I did wonder if just allowing the D-pad/D-pad center could maybe be useful too but as far as I can tell the cursor keys & enter on the keyboard side will then actually fulfill the same purpose "most of the time" anyway.
I think
@denim69 is in a slim minority of users who'd actually need or benefit from such a feature (unfortunately), but I can certainly see why it may be useful as he does specifically mention having hand problems too which are often subjective, & in such cases its probably worth the time required to relearn using his remotes in complete reverse for it to become instinctual
.