Why pointed up? Ooh thats right, thats the hollywood way. So that you can see it next to the main heroes face. But seriously, pointed up needs to stay in hollywood, pointed down you can still get a leg instead of the ceiling and it makes it harder to grab.
I get your humor but there are two very pertinent reasons I would point the barrels up on the 870 moving from bedroom to livingroom in case of BG breakin.
-----1.) I am nearing 70, have bifocals and focus down through the bifocal is very blurry. I occasionally misstep on stairs because of that lack of focus. That means, pointed down traversing the hallway in my small home, the likihood of banging the long barrel into the wall, which could be somewhat of a problem. I might be able to "at least get a leg" pointed down but if I can't see through my bifocals down there, is definitely not a safe way to go. I don't want the leg "I get" to be mine. It is also easier to tell where the long barrel is when pointed somewhat up because I am seeing it out of my normal lens. It has nothing to do with "Hollywood" stereotypes and all to do with safety. My 20" barrel Coach Gun can be levelled at 90 degrees as I move from gun safe to hallway to front room so it can be fired immediately in that position or brought up to my shoulder as I turn the corner and head up the main hallway to the living room. If you do not have to wear bifocals, feel blessed. I am sure there are other geezers on this post that can identify with this issue.
----.2) Using your analogy, "pointed up makes it easier to grab" is the very reason I did not like the long barrel 870 bird gun and wanted a shorter barrel defensive shotgun in the house. It was unwieldy anywhere in the house except after I was nearing the front living room and thus was more dangerous than dependable inside the house. My Double Defender is perfect for home defense that I can have it ready for action from the moment it comes out of my gun safe. It can do the job if I had to step outside and can cover the full distance of my yard. I have seen YouTube demos of this very gun hitting the "BG" out to 25 yards and need to get to the range with it more to feel more comfortable.
-----Just to prove my point that the 870 long barrel was not an effective home defense shotgun for me, I will relate an experience I had a few years ago sitting on a jury which had a man on trial for shooting his neighbor at close range in the chest with a long barrel shotgun. Two preteen boys of the shooter were playing peeping Tom, watching the neighbor's foxy wife undress in her bedroom. She saw them peeking in below the shades and yelled at her husband who was barefoot and barechested, watching tv before completing getting ready for bed. He went running out the door as he was and chased the boys back to their house where the Mom confronted him for chasing them. He proceeded to verbally jump all over her about her peeping Tom boys and she called her husband at work yelling at him about the irate "man" in her living room. The boys' Dad, who worked at a sporting good store, grabbed one of the shotguns off the rack and shells and loaded it on the way home. He walked into his living room and confronted the barechested, barefoot man screaming at him about the kids and had the gun pointed somewhat half up and close to pointing at him. The man reached to push the barrel away from him and the gun discharged, supposedly accidentally, hitting the man in the center of his chest, killing him instantaneously. The pattern was under 2" and the barrel was estimated to be about 18" from his chest when the gun was fired. The shooter originally was convicted of First degree murder but on appeal was ordered for a retrial based on incorrect judge instructions to the jury. I was on the jury for the retrial, although I was not aware of that. The whole trial, it appeared to us jurors that the prosecuters kept "almost" asking questions that would give us the real story but never really got there. That was because they had to refrain from certain references or even mentioning anything that would give us any idea it was a retrial. Bottom line, we all felt the shooter was guilty of negligence in the handling of the firearm and possibly at least Second Degree murder but, because of all the dancing around by the prosecution, felt they never gave us the conclusive evidence the judge's instructions stated we needed for a conviction. We felt we had to vote "Not Guilty". All because the shooter had a long barrel shotgun that was within arms reach of the victim. The fact that the shooter was black and the victim white was an underlying thought to us jurors in 1980's Kansas. It made it essential to us to feel sure we followed the judge's instructions to the letter.
----- I know my desire for the Coach Gun is partially affected by my experience on the jury. I feel 100% comfortable with being in full control of my shotgun at all times now that I never was of the 870 walking through my home. The Coach Gun may not be for everyone but fits my circumstances perfectly, which was the reason for my original post to the OP.