I would say that 99% of the time, when I use the long tail cast-on, I don't pay one bit of attention to whether it is a knit or purl row. But when I have played around with it, and tried purling the first row instead of knitting it, I do see a difference, and in my opinion, it looks better when purling the first row. This leads me to say that the long-tail cast-on includes a row of knitting. But truthfully, that just isn't going to make much difference.

But right now I am making a baby blanket that is made in stockinette squares (with pictures knitted into the squares) and I am purling the first row after the cast-on, because it makes it more closely resemble my bind-off edge, and makes it look more uniform after I sew the squares together.

I, too, purl the first row after the cast-on even when the pattern instructions say 'knit row 1'. When you finish the l-t cast-on you have the right side (or knit side) of the garment facing you, so when you turn to do the next row you are on the wrong side (or purl side), so I purl the first row. I think you have to be a Type A to worry about it, but I do it this way so all my knit rows are on one side.

knitty.com has a lot of good articles about casting on, when different cast-ons might be best, etc. Here's a link to get you started if you're interested in reading some of what they have to say, and you can search their site for more info.

Here is a link that might be useful: knitty.com cast-on article