For me, it may be that the toilet paper roll needs to have the open end away from the wall. I don’t want to reach under the roll to take a piece! That’s ludicrous!
That or my recent addiction to correcting people when they use “less” when they should use “fewer”
I has been used figuratively for literal centuries.
It does bug me when the context needs clarity and the person won’t clarify which way they mean it.