I have a light that is high-med-low with memory. I let others use it a lot when I go camping. When I have let others use it they find it confusing. They seem to always expect two additional modes which either increase or decrease in brightness. So situations where the light turns on to medium results in a dimmer mode and then a much brighter mode, when they expected another lower mode. Or staring on low the light gets brighter but then dimmer. they seem to have trouble knowing what mode they are in visually and where they are at in the sequence. Strangely enough and from my limited experience, this seems far less prevalent in low-med-high with memory lights. I’m not sure why though. It could be my one light with hi to low order doesn’t have the best mode spacing and contributes to the confusion (I personally wish both low and med. were dimmer… and high brighter ).
The second option seems ok to me. I think repeatability is key for non-flashaholics. So they know it will start bright and get dim from there. They’ll cover the lens with a hand, shirt, or just point it up or away until they get to low, if that is what they are going for. Very seldom is medium ever used.That’s my experience.
Hope that helps.