I would say it becomes a bit (arguably) more clear if you zoom out a bit and think in terms of more complex structures.
For example, say that the AB-BA chunk on the left is a combination that influences each other the way they are placed, an intra-dependency for example through the gate connections, or so if they were transistors. We can call this combination of four subcells a new cell "C".
From that perspective, while placing more Cs, it makes sense to mirror C while placing a copy of it east of the first C. If there is any "intra-cell" gradient, it will then be compensated for in the mirrored C.