RW, in most cases, the best minhag is from your family, unless it was clearly off “minhag shtus”.
Sephardi Torahs seem to be easier to handle and store upright. Also, their minhag is to do hagbah BEFORE the reading, which seems to make a lot of sense: you demonstrate the text to the kahal and then read it. If someone sees the problem, he can point it out beforehand. What is the explanation for the Ashkenazi order?