A gyre is Not necessarily top to bottom, but it seems like Jake thinks that works best in most cases. Makes sense since most tanks are set up with the rock along the back. At the meeting he did describe a couple tanks that he uses a whirlpool type gyre in. At least for me, his basic idea boils down to use your pumps to achieve "mass nwater movement". Make them work together to get all the water in your tank moving, more like a tide than trying to create a wave crashing random turbulence by pointing pumps at each other. However you can achieve it in your tank, top to bottom gyre, whirlpool gyre, is better than thinking about flow only as what actually comes out of the end of your pump.
I have a 92 corner bowfront and was never happy with the flow. When I redid my rockwork a few months ago I decided to try to create a whirlpool effect and so far I like it much better. The idea of keeping all the water moving is not new, I think it's just been "out of fashion" for a while. As Jake put it "random/chaotic" flow is what everyone thinks is "best", and his opinion backed up with some studies he conducted show that's not necessarily correct. When I decided to try a whirlpool it was based on an old build thread right here on this forum. I think it was a peninsula tank they wanted to make sure did not collect detritus at the far end, so they created a whirlpool. A top to bottom gyre would not work in my tank. I tried it to try to get rid of dead spots and keep detritus moving, but it was great to hear Jake describe some of the other benefits. After seeing his presentation I'm seriously considering buying a couple more pumps and a controller to reverse the flow several time a day.