I got the idea recently that when a standalone ladder is placed it could be placed so it would line up with ladders that have been placed on the side of a block, so then you wouldn't have to have 1x2 hatch for a treehouse or whatever you're placing standalone ladder for.

It's easy to change it in code, but the idea was to make free-standing not require any supporting block. Therefore, ladders that attach to a side shouldn't free float. But, I will probably work on ladder logic a bit more in the future.

:D