Directional cables - what does that really mean?

When Skoff said

 there's no way—other than by listening to it—to determine which direction a piece of wire's "preferred" direction of signal flow may be.

please note geoff he said a piece of "wire" not "cable". Don't conflate the two. 

Which you just did again: 

 The reason the strands are all in the same direction is because the entire process of making wire and making cables is automated and controlled.

While probably true for wire, this is far from true for cables. Ted Denney for example seldom misses an opportunity to remind people his cables are all made by hand in California. There's video tours of him showing who and where they are made. Same for him explaining how when wire comes in before ever making a cable they test the wire for directionality. Not that he's the only one. But he does it. So maybe try and keep straight the difference between a raw piece of wire and a finished cable.

Even in the case of finished cables built and marked for direction there still is no way to determine which is preferred except by listening to it. Otherwise you are assuming not determining.

Personally, I was for many years one of those who assumed and never bothered trying to see if there was anything going on or not. Then one day I hooked up a really good interconnect and was crushed to hear how bad it sounded. Devastated maybe is a better word. I mean it was awful. Spent the better part of a day sick at having thrown away so much money. Then it hit me. Went and had a look. Sure enough. Damn. Switched ends. What a difference! Night and day! 

Same thing happened a few months ago with a Blue Quantum Fuse. Immediately felt it sounded better, yet wrong. More dynamic, but also a lot more confused. Hard to explain exactly. Flipped around, hugely obviously better. 

So again you guys can argue to the moon about why, just so everyone understands that being unable to say for sure why does nothing in the least to change the fact that wire is indeed directional- and the only way of determining this is by listening.

Actually, the companies who control cables for directionality know exactly which way the wire will sound best all along the whole process. As soon as they receive the wire they know. It’s not rocket science. All it takes is a little coordination. The ones who have to try a wire both ways are the ones who don’t care about wire directionality. So the claim is in fact a strawman argument.  

If the speaker cables or the interconnects are not controlled for directionality then you don’t necessarily know if both L and R channel cables are in the same direction. So reversing their direction simultaneously might not do anything except move the problem to the other channel.

Obviously I’m referring to big operations, in terms of stranded cables. If someone has a basement operation, and can’t automate, who cares?

A free tweak to the best short explanation why wires and cables and fuses sound different when you reverse them. I’m not talking about whether they act as diodes, magnets or porcupine quills. I’m talking what physically takes place to produce such differences. I’m not even talking about measuring voltage drop differences. In the case of fuses, disregard the fuse holder to discourage arguments by you know who.

Wire is cast and then drawn through a die, which creates a pattern in the grain structure and a non-symmetrical pattern at the surface of the wire, affecting high frequencies and causing the sound to be comparatively flat and grainy in one direction and more relaxed and natural sounding in the other.....so they say

This is an interesting subject to say the least.  
Some say directional
Some say bs
Patience costs money lols