Why are cigarbox instruments usually upside down?

I hadn't thought about this before (until about a week ago).
Why is it that people often use the underside of the box as the visible side of the instrument - surely it would be nicer to see facing forward the cigar box logo that is imprinted on the lid of the box?
Well there is method in the madness. The bit that faces out front on the instrument is the sound board - the bit that needs to resonate to create a clear loud sound - and to maximise its resonance, it needs to be thin - thinner than the usual 1/8" panel. So easiest thing to do is plane and sand the base of the box to the desired thickness.
But why not just thin the top panel? well you could, but that would mean planing off the decorative outer surface... UNLESS you were prepared to carefully remove the lid panel, thin the underside of the panel and refit the thinned panel back to the lid frame.... A lengthy process that I don't want to get involved with right now. So i shall keep my decorative lid panel..... quite literally 'close to my chest'