The figure directive passes all options that are supported by the "image" directive except align to the included image:
* width sets the image width, figwidth sets the figure width,
* class sets image class values, figclass sets figure class values,
* name sets a reference name for the image, figname sets a reference name for the figure.
but
* align sets the alignment of the figure and there is no option to set the alignment of an image in the figure.¹
¹ As a workaround, the image alignment can be set passing the special values "align-left", "align-right", or "align-center" to the class option.
Suggestion:
* Use align for image alignment and the new option figalign for figure alignment.
* Provide a new configuration setting legacy-figure-align for the rST parser that switches to the current behaviour for backwards compatibility. The default value of this setting would be "True" and change at a later stage.