It's not meant to be a "benefit" or to avoid disastrous consequences. It's meant to be a definition. If you don't flip, then you violate the agreed upon definition of convolution. Convolution without the flip has a name of its own: correlation.
What motivated people to define convolution with a flip? Well in 1D, it means, for example that the convolution of causal signals will also be causal. Also, when you flip, then the convolution with an impulse response function of a system gives you the response of that system. If you don't flip, the response comes out backwards.
Why do the same in 2D? Using a different definition in 2D would make it inconsistent with 1D.
