The universe appears "old", but it is still less than 10,000 years old

[Alex K]

I might be missing the point, but how would the light "know" which direction to go at infinite speed and which to go at half C?

The geometry of space itself is set up anisotropically if you will.

Even if you wish to tout it as a convention it doesn't change the fact that it still takes light a finite time to travel a given distance. Despit all of staplers protestations to the contrary.

I think I disagree. How do you measure the time it takes light to travel from A to B, and how do you define the time interval delta T which it took? You will implicitly use the "isotropic" synchronization convention to do it. The point is not that this is a deep physical difference, it's just that light travel times for one-way trips are a convention dependent quantity.