My uninformed logic would be that there is symbolic reasons for facing East such as (and these are not based on any authority) being obedient to what Allah has taught through Quran, The Prophet, Muhammad (sall Allahu 'alayhi wa Sallem), and Iman. Also, even though the world is round and you are right that traveling either East or West can get us to the same place eventually, as a pilot (small planes, single engine, non-commercial) I found that it is best to follow the route that has been mapped out in advance. I once flew into a very large airport and was being passed from controller to controller when suddenly the last controller said "niner niner four niner seven, do you see that 727 off your left side, turn immediately either direction and drop altitude..." My friend,who was a much more experienced pilot than I ,put the plane in a right turning dive and got us out of the way of disaster. I suppose that is why it is better to only follow Allah's instruction and those whom we know that we can trust. In America, we have an expression "Too many cooks spoil the stew."