I was fiddling about in the boot today, and remembered this thread so had a look at things.
I think the strut is the right way round
for the application, when the hatch is closed the gas end of the strut is pointing down which gets the initial movement of the strut bar to be with gravity and therefore allows the movement to be more fluid. Secondly if the bar was the other way around the small amount of lube that is in there would all drain away from where it is required, with the strut the way it is, the lube is always working on the rod.
The only negative of the strut being mounted this way is that the rod does not have to push through the oil at the end of the stroke which reduces the damping effect built into gas struts which are usually as Dibbo says mounted the other way.
The flip side may be that these struts are the type which have the additional reservoir for damping, however this is not an economy type of strut and so I would be surprised (but not shocked

) to find them fitted to the i30.