Official comment
Good questions.
Firstly, to answer your questions about the playback directions. No, no single playback direction is the same as the other.
CW = 1,2,3,4,8,12,16,...
CCW = 1,5,9,7,13,14,...
CW Reverse = 10,11,7,6,5,9,...
CCW Reverse = 7,11,10,6,2,3,..
CW Flip = 4,3,2,1,5,9,13...
They're all different. It's a way of using very little space on a pretty feature-packed front panel to try out many many playback directions.
Yes, as you noticed, randomization is not offered in playback direction, but in several other ways that really allow for adding new life. Firstly, the function "TRIG RANDOM" preserves your existing notes, but applies a random grid over the pattern switching certain notes on and off and certain sequencer steps on and off...creating new pattern lengths each time... It's the perfect balance of sounding similar, but totally fresh.
Next, you have 3 different buttons to instantly randomize the pitches, gate times, or velocities of your pattern independently...also creates fresh ideas instantly and stays constrained to the scale you're working in.
Next, if you hold down the shift button, you can fire off your sequence, in sync with your clock, from any step in the pattern and create your own new groove based on the original pattern but with a bit more expressive control from you the creator. And finally, if you play with all the combinations of the playback direction buttons at random, you will get something fun and interesting in no time.
"Ah, but how do you save that" I hear you asking. That's what the TIME WARP button is for. It is covertly recording all your front panel operations and allows you to listen back and loop anything you've done in the last 16 bars and instantly save that as a new pattern--and from there you can take that new pattern and manipulate it further. It is one of the coolest things I've ever seen in a hardware MIDI sequencer.
Thanks!