Agreed. You can only manage your most recent 225 uploaded pics unless you get a paid subscription, but older pics remain even with a free account. I've got pics hosted by Imgur posted on message boards that have remained in place for years. They only disappear if you intentionally delete them.
If you'd like an easy way to batch rotate an entire directory of pics to match the EXIF rotation, check out
JPEG Lossless Rotator. You can select-all in a folder, right-click the selected blob, and choose "Automatically rotate", and it'll handle the extra step for hundreds of pics if you wish with only 2 clicks.
OP, I see where you're coming from though. It'd be a nice feature for a premium membership. A feature I wish were available is the ability to edit posts indefinitely. The 12-hour limit is frustrating sometimes, and makes it impossible to keep how-to guides updated. We can dream, though.