I remember back in the early 80s into the 70s yo try keep the well straight(ish), Shell was using pin up drill collars so as to be able to run the biggest possible O.D. ans still have a stout connection and fishability.. They did some square collars in them days as well. This was in the Pincher Creek area.

See SPE/IACC paper 18667 Smith Industries Int´l

Since 1979 the Halliburton Cementig accessories were preferencially PIN Up

Around 1987, it was believed that pin up - mainly on Bottom Hole Assemblies - would ease fishing.

1989. On a memo from Bob Baker, he defended that rig automation would benefit from pin up geometry,

1991. Exxon also favoured Pin Up. Can´t remember why!

1991 the SPE/IADC paper at the top1

1992 The Microdrill drilling effort also leans toward Pin UP

1997 Pin up defended by Pin-Tec outfit

1994 Roy Dudman to eliminate drill String failures  proposes pin up

1999 Shell Western SWET also encourages the use of Pin Up

A search in SPE's Onepetro revealed this paper

Pin-up Drillstring Technology: Design, Application, and Case Histories - OnePetro (doi.org)

Weatherford had an agency agreement for this DP at one time. Even in the US it did not find much favour. A lot of smoke and mirrors by the “founders” but nothing obvious and with high torque connections coming in, there was not anything that pin up DP offered as better value technically, plus it was expensive to rent out.
Regards Howard

Hi Pete

I do hope that you get a few good answers to your question.

A quick search threw this up, as a starter-for-ten.

http://www.iadc.org/dcpi/dc-marapr01/m-pintec.pdf

I can't speak for drill pipe providers, but I can think of one disadvantage of pin-up drill pipe.

1. Box-down might accumulate debris, picked up in the traditional (wooden) set-back areas, that would not be as evident as a pin staring you in the face in a pin-down scenario.

Kind regards

Dave