I would think the first loop is probably the more commonly looked for "loop" (being that it's all on a similar plane around the object). The other could easily be hinted at by selecting two of the edges of it, then looping. You could enforce such behavior explicitly all the time when given such a choice, forcing at least two edges along the loop you want to be selected before it can loop. (This is how, for example, Modo figures out what you want when trying to loop poly faces).