Is It Backwards? Why Does it Work?

Lined up dot to dot is timed up on #6. The correct position for #1 firing position is both dots at 12 o'clock.....yet there are few and far between service manuals that show that. The reason is because it's become the industry standard to line the dots up, time the engine correctly, install the distributor at what would be 180 out. That's because it's much easier to determine that the dots are aligned if they are at their closest.

So did they change this on magnums? We did it dot to dot, rotor pointing to #1 TDC and it fired up on the first crank. Am I missing something really basic and got really lucky?