I've always hated the section view in parts and assemblies because I never knew for sure which way it was going to section (note that I am not talking about the drawing section view, which is differnt) The model section often takes a while to generate, so when it goes in the wrong direction it chews up precious time (and I swear, despite the odds, its made the wrong choice over half the time).
I only just noticed that if you change the offset of the section view or flip the direction, SW will show an arrow that indicates which way the part/assembly will be sectioned. I wish the arrow were there from the beginning, but getting it to show through a simple toggle of the dialog is at least a step in the right direction, and has made this tool useful for me again.
I know others that have had similar trouble, and use assembly cuts instead of section view. Suprisingly, when I tested this, mates to edges that get cut away by the assembly cut are still respected as if the edges were still there. I do not know if this holds true for all cases. I just thought it interesting....
BTW - Section view has gotten to be pretty cool in the couple of years I have not been using it much. You can do work in section view, measure the sectioned edges, and, if the section is from a plane, start sketches on the faces of the section and even make relations to the sectioned edges and SW will cleverly attach these relations to the section plane and the silhouette edges (though I would not recommend the last one - it seems to be asking for trouble).