Hi everyone thanks again for all the great feedback.

An update:

I got my old mountain bike serviced this weekend. It has cages. I hadn't ridden it in ages because it needed a tuneup/new tubes.

I took it out tonight. I paid attention to my dismount. Oddly enough - I only dismount naturally on the right side anyway. I thought I was "forcing" myself to do the right side because it felt odd but no, that's the side I favor. This is, again, the cages not clipless tonight.

Dismounting on the left side felt very ungainly although I wonder now if it's because of 6-8 rides with the clipless/dismounting on the right only. Probably not because I rode that thing for years before, I can't believe I'd unlearn something in a handful of rides.

What is different is how I am approaching the stop though. I have my left foot down, right foot up.... I am coasting with the left foot down... then in one smooth motion the right foot moves forward a little, comes out, and then down. This is opposite of what I do now which is the right foot has to be down for me to unclip.

Interesting...