I have used Sketchup since the 1990’s and my main frustration with it slowing me down is double clicking a face to repeat and push / pull process. Sometimes it repeats correctly and sometimes it does the opposite. I know this relates to the orientation of the faces but there are times that I can’t see any rhyme or reason why it doesn’t repeat correctly.
I would prefer that if I push (or pull) a face and then double click on another, that it would repeat the same whether the face is reversed or not.
SketchUp was released in August 2000, so maybe you were a developer or a beta tester? But I doubt you used it in the 90s.
Regarding face orientation - it’s good practice / good habit to properly orient your faces, regardless of how P/P acts.