the usage is bad, and it causes math to be more confusing now that mul ordering was fixed a couple years ago. this would be a breaking change and probably prevent an enormous amount of confusing bugs from this legacy bit of the api
it's not really a bug so much as a legacy misfeature that should just go away. a long time ago it made using it easier.
signed, me who just explained the math to someone backwards for the last hour before realizing the logical inconsistency.