[huuu]

It does better when, for example, you have a field called 'id' in both tables.

  SELECT
      *
  FROM table1
  JOIN table2
      ON table2.rel_id = table1.id

will use one of the 'id' field from table1 or table2 (depending on the join type).

  SELECT
      table1.*
  FROM table1
  JOIN table2
      ON table2.rel_id = table1.id

will use the 'id' field of table1 and does not include data from table2.

But I agree with your other arguments.