Learn me intercooler end tank design--does it actually matter?

First, something I've always wondered about the most common aftermarket intercooler design:

Air is going to take the path of least resistance, so it seems to me like most of the air is going to flow through the tubes directly in line with the inlet and outlet, until the airflow through those tubes is high enough that their resistance to flow any more air makes the next tube higher up the intercooler the path of least resistance, etc. But the ones way up at the top? Very little air actually flows through those, right?

Okay, how about this design?

It seems like the flow through the tubes is going to be more evenly distributed than the first design, but there's going to be more turbulence and thus restriction because all of the air is forced to take two 90deg turns. The tubes at the top will probably flow the least because the 90deg turn is the most abrupt there.

So, does it actually matter, or is the performance difference between two same-size intercoolers pretty much the same regardless of end tank design? Has anyone seen/done any good testing on this?

Very good questions.......I have to believe it doesn't matter, or why else would they all be built this way? It can't just be for packaging reasons, right?

Look at the ones used on a lot of German turbo cars and even Ford's ecoboost......, a long square box with the ends also at 90*

If it significantly mattered, the OEM applications would look different than the aftermarket applications.  

FWIW, in the book Street Turbocharging, by Mark Warner, the chapter on intercoolers says that the following design, with one of the end tanks flipped down, has the least pressure drop:

He notes that symmetrical end tanks, unless baffled, will pass most of the air directly across the core.

I don't know the extent to which any of this is meaningful, practically speaking.