If you try to apply one language’s logic to another, you will indeed conclude such things. But be sure that for a French native speaker learning English, the English form will be considered strange, not the French one.

Now, an interesting question lying above that is: what can be revealed about the spirit of a language by analysing these small differences in directionality?

When used with persons, à usually marks the beneficiary/recipient (a dative of sorts):

Baptiste a fait une fleur à Christine.
Paul a donné du pain à Marie.

Beneficiary is to be understood as recipient, the result might not be an actual benefit from his standpoint as in your first context.