I was gonna say that’s stupid because north is up, but then I realised it makes no difference when you look at it from space

No. If any country does it's like the US with the imperial system but even stupider because they aren't just shooting themselves in the foot, they are chopping the whole thing off.

The US has the North Pole on top but they are in the Northern Hemispere.

NZ has north pole up. I think the international standard is north pole up, and only a few custom maps have south pole up.