Rotating wall lights only allows for slight rotation (~22 degrees to the left or right).
Because the rotation changes based on the surface face it is easy to mistake placement for not being valid on a surface. I had thought the Crude Wall Light could only be placed on non-destructible structures because it showed as invalid when trying to place on a wall while being valid on other surfaces, but it was just the orientation that was the problem.
Orientation should allow for full 360 rotation so that it remains valid regardless of the surface, but also for different approaches to lighting.