In the OG, I recall that, if you were to move in a different direction than the one you were facing, you were not charged with additional AP for the direction change. This seemed natural, since the turning was part of the move. That led to interesting situations, because you had to decide if it would be better to be cautious and first turn, then move, or just start moving, even though you were not able to see what is there at that direction, in order to avoid the extra AP cost for turning. That was true for changing direction while moving, as well.
I think most people would agree that turning as part of moving does not really take more time than just moving. I would like to see that implemented in the game. Or, at least, reduced cost for turning while moving.