This is strictly my personal opinion:
I love <24 hour layovers. It gives you a taste of the place and lets you come back later if you want.
However, for a flight like this, I would prefer as non-stop of a flight as possible, as I would not be able to fully enjoy the layover (my mind will be elsewhere).

*I* would prefer as direct a routing as possible in this case.

Transfers in IST are quite cheap, so prebooking one is probably not a bad idea.