Why are prokaryotic promoter sequences written 5' to 3', when transcription proceeds from 3' to 5'?
DNA sequence by convention is written starting at the 5' position so the directionality is assumed without explicitly writing the 5' and 3'. As for why its not the template strand sequence. I would say that's also a convention for simplicity because you only need to write one sequence if you want to discuss genes and regulatory elements.