Real thing or just misinterpretation? Rotating batteries to make TV remote work
The contact areas (of the battery and battery holder) are probably bad.
By rotating them, you'll grind the contacts a bit and the contact points will change all the time. You probably turn the batteries (repeat the described process) untill the contact areas are connected well enough so the remote is working again.
Bad contacts may not be always clearly visible.
Maybe cleaning the contacts with a glass fiber pen/brush will improve it.