Yup, these were claimed to be a cause of congestion in the junction south of Piccadilly, since as well as reversing they also had to cross from the "east" lines to the "slow" lines. As I understand it this was one of the major justifications given for building the ordsall chord and making Manchester Victoria the main station in Manchester for the "north transpennine" route.I didn't notice it mentioned yet, but not so long ago there were large numbers of trains between Manchester Airport and York, Middlesbrough & Newcastle which reversed at Piccadilly.
Nowadays nearly all trains from leeds to manchester airport go via victoria, the ordsall chord and the through platforms at Piccadilly, but there still seems to be a single train a day that uses the old route. https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/Y80990/2019/09/23/advanced