(02 Mar 2021, 4:37 pm)Andreos1 wrote I've seen comments that it 'reads better' and 'passengers can see it better at bus stations'.

I'd argue neither of those things are actually accurate. 
There's the whole discussion about the 28 to BChester le Street or 35 to ALow Moorsley. 
Then there's the fact that the proportion of bus stations to bus stops is massively in favour of bus stops and punters will potentially struggle to see which service is approaching.
The whole 'can see it better at bus stations' line seems to contradict all the comments we've had from drivers about passengers struggling to see short-running services - despite it being in the apparent prime viewing spot on the offside of the display in the past.

Whereas all the best practice (as you mention) has many positives.

Aye, what a load of tosh that is. Ideological preferences being put ahead of what is practically better. Then the bus stations thing - isn't that the entire point of the nearside destination display?

Looking on Flickr, many services still seem to have the route number on the nearside. So you could have a situation where someone gets off one bus where the number is displayed properly, then the next bus in the journey has it on the offside. That won't lead to any confusion. 

Yes, this may seem like nitpicking to some, but small little inconveniences to punters can quickly add up - people can be very fickle.

Just as a comparison, these are the standard destination layouts of the rest of the "big 3" in the NE:  
https://flic.kr/p/2kGrzGK
https://flic.kr/p/2kF5WDY

Both, in my view, are very easy to read and understand. Not cluttered in the slightest, route number easily visible at all times. Compare with this: https://flic.kr/p/2kGmX1J. The Elite i is as uncluttered as the ANE/SNE examples, but has an o/s route number. Then the Streetdeck is, again in my view, quite cluttered and possibly hard for irregular bus users to understand. 

None of those photos were handpicked or anything like that, just the most recent photos in a Flickr search for each operator that had a reasonably clear destination capture.