I don't see this as especially controversial.

The fact that these items face you towards your enemy is as much a feature of the game as the lack of an explicit "/face" type command. I'm sure that particular rationale has been used to justify more nefarious things in the past though

If it was determined by Blizzard to be an unintended effect, the worst I can imagine them doing is fixing the items.

I fully intend to give this a shot on the team I'm about to start levelling from 70 to 80 (*groan*...) but a general "is it ok to hold on to these items to get this functionality" type post on the Blizz forums would definitely remove any doubt.