modifier order (scrap)

for my part, i think the left-to-right analysis faded into the any-order analysis as toki pona became more established in terms of its number of speakers by the time i was speaking toki pona comfortably, the any-order analysis was more popular for pedagogical and pragmatic reasons.

pedagogically, any-order is easier to explain and understand. then, if it's wrong or at least inaccurate compared to reality, it's still accurate enough that a learner can catch up on the differences later.

pragmatically, modifier order doesn't matter because even if it does matter to a given speaker, the listener doesn't have enough time at the speed of language to reliably evaluate the nuances of one order versus another and then respond. language itself is already very resilient against error- i can most often still understand you through typoes, bad enunciations, grammatical errors, entirely substituted words, and tons more errors- not to mention issues with signal quality e.g. over a call.

to that end, i would find it sincerely surprising if modifier order mattered in a way that people reliably noticed. frankly, sometimes there are phrases which you'd struggle to tell the difference in meaning even with pi missing from them. and the conversation keeps going without issue!

summarizing that- any-order modifiers are easier. even if modifier order matters to somebody, if that order were messed up, you'd probably still understand what that person meant.