OK, was not obvious to me; thanks for the tip!

That's what the "Use same options next time" is for:
https://winscp.net/eng/docs/ui_synchronize#saving_options

I was synchronizing my local directory to a remote directory, which is being updated. I notice the direction is getting reset to Remote each time, making me override it each time I want to synchronize to my local machine. I think this setting should be sticky so once you set it, it stays set, or make it a global or per site preference.

Thanks for listening.