As we all know, every depot/building is managed differently.
My center has done poorly on Orion. Result, we are required to make the first stop in Orion, "no exceptions".
To answer Dave's question, yes Orion in my center would, and does, have you drive past air stops to get to the stop it has calculated to be the best way to run the trip to save miles. Pickups, and even lunches are calculated in to the algorithm. It is calculated down to the minute. If nothing goes wrong for the entire dy then possibly the solution would trim miles........if and only if, you ignore backing.
The other reason Orion has you doing crazy things....because centers try to cheat Orion by putting in one ways, or delivery commit times in order to have the solution match the driver. All well and good, but once those stops are add cut to another route, then it craps the bed.
Here is a great one......Orion had a driver go to a single business building, deliver ground as his first stop. Leave business and continue to deliver airs and grounds. Guess where the last air stop was? Back to the first Orion stop. How does that make sense in any world. Go to a business, deliver grounds, to go back and deliver airs later??? This is probably do to the center forcing Orion to do something to try and match the drivers way of delivering the route.