Let Illustrator change path direction for non-compund paths

For Compund Paths, AI let the user change the path direction. In previous versions, this was the way to make the fill toggle work. (to make 'holes' in shapes, e.g. the character 'o'). .AI calls this 'Use Even-Odd Fill Rule'. I prefer to use 'fill toggle', since it fills/unfills shapes sequentially. In the new versions it's easy to make the fill toggle work. It's only a click away, in the Attributes panel.

But ok, since a while AI has introduced the fabulous Width Toolto interactively make varying stroke widths.
There are also some presets for varying stoke widths.

Once in a while I like to change the direction of the width envelope, and I was thinking that the change path direction buttons in the Attrubutes panel would do. But that does not work for non-compound paths. And once I choose to make it compound, the buttons are active, but still do not allow me to change direction back and forth.

The only way to change path direction for a single path is to mess around with both the fill toggle-button and the direction buttons.

Wouldn't it be nice when the path direction buttons do what they promise? For bot compound and non-compound paths. And let strokes with a varying width react to the path direction.

So

Here the same story, Illustrated:

1
A stroked path with varying width, non-compound: the direction buttons are unavailable

2 & 3
Made it a compund path, buttons are available, but do not have any effect

4
Messing around with both the direction buttons and the fill toggle has the effect I was looking for: the width envelope of the stroke is reversed