True! When I started driving, I was using the "north is always up" setting as it helped me get a better understanding of where I was in the city. Somehow this was more fun.

At some point I switched to the more common setting (I assume) of having the map rotate.

I still have my map as going in the direction I'm going. Being from Europe wind directions don't matter. The roads don't care.

Then the 3d view came out, and that got my preference, and I'm always hoping one day the clouds will represent actual weather.

Anyway, the first car I got when moving to the USA got one of those direction things in the mirror, and I actually started to force myself to think in those terms. It removes a lot of ambiguity when explaining things, for example: you then turn left is more ambiguous than you then turn West.

Good point is - "it helped me get a better understanding of where I was". That's repeated by many users having the "north is up" setup.

Certainly, if you have the other setting where your arrow is following the vehicle's direction, then what you see on the map is just an extension of what your eyes see already. While it might be very helpful in specific situations like crossroads and switching lanes, in general it doesn't help much when one wants to learn how things are interrelated in space around. "North is up" gives that. Mind has amazing capabilities of learing even when busy