It's still only one day lost to travel, compared with two days lost to travel if one flies from the west coast in the morning and connects to the ORD/IAD/JFK (evening) flights. I like the flexibility to choose either option.

I suppose that if one is going to the Indian sub-continent or east Asia, to which most flights leave at night, the ORD/IAD/JFK connection would be better to avoid a full-day layover in DOH.

Kind of like one of my favorite schedules -- LH to DXB. They have one overnight flight (MUC-DXB, DXB-FRA) and one day flight (DXB-MUC, FRA-DXB) in each direction to provide maximum flexibility.