This 'North' orientation concept comes from the invention of the compass and understanding of magnetic north from early Europeans. It's just the way I was taught as a kid, what I've seen most often throughout my career in construction, surveying, and has just been the norm throughout my circle of influence. Personally, I like to keep my North orientation on all maps facing up. This topic is fairly controversial amongst my peer group and has caused more than it fair share of needless miles.
One of the very basics to reading any map is orientation. Once you can visualize, your digital scouting efforts will become much more cohesive with time spent burning boot leather. Once the very basics are understood it actually becomes quite easy to pick apart key topo features and really get solid visuals of what the real-life ground actually looks like. However, if you want to hunt whitetail deer in hill country being able to read topo maps is a necessity. Whether you're a new hunter or you have a few seasons under your belt, topo maps can seem a bit more intimidating than satellite imagery.
Topo maps have a variety of applications, but when talked about in the hunting community it's generally related to scouting where folks are using them to identify key terrain features.
