ECL was designed with the presumption of 50-ohm
transmission line interconnects, so it wants that
termination. Why the kooky -2V-ish termination,
well, -5.2V would have meant a way bigger output
driver and supply current; a compromise was made
and now you get to respect it.
People know how to do 50-ohm traces, a good PCB
designer "just does it naturally, when told". Demand
a 125-ohm system and enjoy the befuddled stare.
Internal vs external, you want to look at the effects
of the parasitic inductances and where these are best
placed - between driver pads and between PCB traces,
will differ in the details and you may want to spend
some time modeling this well, if you're after ultimate
signal integrity. It could get complex; above 1GHz,
bet on it being a real good idea.