What's 'good' about it? MDX was never told to 'hold' in the IFR sense, he was told to 'remain OCTA'. 'Holding' is a procedure that the pilot wasn't asked to perform...if he wanted to wait for a clearance a couple of orbits would have been all that was necessary.
The question is essentially asking 'how is it possible for a NVFR pilot to roll out of a turn onto a compass heading?'
Did the pilot have any indication of how long he would be required to wait OCTA (even if it's not considered holding)?
If you can't see a point on the ground to hold over (it's dark) you need some way to come back to the same point after the orbits. That's more than just resuming a heading. If you do a couple of orbits, you are going to drift downwind. How far? Depends on the wind. How do you get back on your track? I don't know (I'm not NVFR rated). It seems to me you would need either a navaid to overfly, or 2 bearings to fix your position, or a radar position.
It appears to me that a couple of orbits might be more difficult than it sounds. IFR holding is designed to keep you in a known position. Without a holding procedure to use, NVFR "waiting" is probably more difficult, not easier.
Is it possible that for navigational reasons he had decided circling and waiting was impractical, and had pre-planned to divert around the airspace if a clearance hadn't been received by a certain point?