An example:

2 Recording Slots Available
Grouped Model 1 (Least preferred model):
Group 1 Primary Feed 85
Group 1 Secondary Feed 90
Group 1 Tertiary Feed 90
Ungrouped Model 2 (Most preferred model) 87
Ungrouped Model 3 (Second-most preferred model) 86

In this case, Models 2 and 3 are normally more desirable for recording, *but* Model 1 becomes more desirable if their primary feed is offline while the others are on, because that's often an indication that the model is in private/ticket/password/whatever in the primary feed while remaining in public on another. If group order is checked first, models going partially offline can essentially be used as an automatic means of prioritizing models who are possibly in private, while afk. Instead of just helping to optimize feed quality, the list can actually be used to select for more worthwhile shows.

The system isn't perfect: if Model 1 goes private on feeds 2 or 3 while remaining in public on 1, then they aren't recorded even though they're preferred at that point. That situation would require full-on "Bump up model priority if any feed is private" types of rules, which I would imagine to be much more of a pain in the ass to implement than flip-flopping priority and list precedence. That issue is mitigated somewhat, however, by the fact that the Primary Feed is probably going to be Chaturbate at least as often as not, and it's much easier to obtain Chaturbate recordings than those from other sites without doing it yourself if you really want one.

If model priority is checked first, then this functionality is completely nullified. Model 1 is recorded even though Models 2 and 3 are normally preferred, Model 1's secondary feed is used even though its primary is normally preferred, and there's no way to manipulate priorities and orders such that a model going offline (and therefore possibly private) can be properly reacted to recording-wise without the user present. Obviously, you'd set your priorities differently in this case, but you still lose that finer control.

I understand that giving all models in a group equal priority brings group order into play, but if all of the Group 1 feeds are set to 85, then Model 1 is never recorded regardless of whether they're very possibly in private but still available for public recording; if all of the Group 1 feeds are set to 90, then Model 1 is always recorded even though Models 2 and 3 are preferred when everyone is in public. A significant piece of functionality is lost, and not much of anything is gained. List order is reduced to helping ensure you see the goddamn Camsoda logo as little as possible (which is still helpful, but not nearly as much as it could be).

Again, sorry if I breezed past an explanation for this (a user sort of explained the reasoning above last year, but nobody really had an answer), and for all of the words, but I don't understand how this isn't completely backwards.