I would like to hear the opinion of an architect. If staircases being clockwise or anti-clockwise can have some advantages.
From my POV since most people are right handed, an anti-clockwise staircase would feel more natural for going up, since you can make the first step with your right foot and use your dominant hand for the handrail. But for getting down a clockwise staircase would feel more natural.
All the church tower climbs I can recall in this moment are on anti-clockwise stairs, so there may be a point here. The decent was never so exciting so I really can't remember if the other stair was twisting the other way around...
Not an architect, but having more than a little experience in house (and staircases) design.
There are some geometrical limits that will make the stair start and land on the same or opposite side, both "top" vs. "bottom" and "left" vs. "right".
Usually (but not always) you want the stair to start and land on the same (bottom vs. top) side and this - generally speaking - implies having a 180° turning of the stair, which itself implies that if you start left, you land right or - viceversa - if you start right you land left.
How much is the height you have to cover?
How large is the staircase diameter?
A typical height of around 3 meters will give you, with steps between 15 (very "plain") and 25 cm (rather steep) anything between 4 and 5 (max 6) steps per meter of height.
If you have a 2 m diameter staircase and a central hub of - say - 40 cm diameter, each step will be 80 cm wide.
On the outer side it will be anything between 25 and 35 cm.
So, let's test what happens with 15 cm high steps and outer side 30 cm.
The perimeter of the staircase is Pix2.00=6.28, with 30 cm on the outside it will give you around 6.28/0.30=~21 steps for a 360° rotation, and 21x15=3.15 height, but you want actually 180° or 540° as you would want to have the stair land on the same side (top vs. bottom), for 180° you have only 10/11 steps, and you cannot make 27/30 cm high steps.
So you either enlarge the staircase (to increment its perimeter) or reduce the max size of the step (but remember that when you decrease the size of the step on the outer size, the size near the hub will also become smaller).
Let's try again with the same 2 m diameter staircase and 25 cm outer step, 180° 3.14/0.25=12,56->13 steps 3.00/13=0.23 cm, steep but doable.
In a "lower left corner" (what you can imagine as a letter "L") it makes sense (to minimize area needed) to have the first step, at the lower level, on the left (but you will land on the right).
In practice you have to decide whether you want around 1 meter space between the outer (left) wall and the step on either the lower or the higher level, it depends, but you want the extra 1 m space at the level where you can possibly put some piece of furniture (a closet, a library, whatever).
There is no particular ergonomical reason (AFAIK) why one would prefere a clockwise or anticlockwise staircase, as you noted if one might feel more comfortable going up, it will feel less so going down or viceversa.
From my POV since most people are right handed, an anti-clockwise staircase would feel more natural for going up, since you can make the first step with your right foot and use your dominant hand for the handrail. But for getting down a clockwise staircase would feel more natural.