We all used to specify --modes, so we could go high to low or low to high. There are many reasons why low to high is good - bandwidth, storage, tiny devices, not needed for "talking heads", poor eyesight that can't see HD anyway. Then --tvmode came about. It was neeeded, and appreciated, because of increasing complexity. Then 50fps came on top! Among all that, we've lost the ability to (easily) specify lower to higher quality modes.

BEST to WORST is well established for trying higher quality first. But what about lower quality first? I think it would be great to have tvmodes of LOWEST to HIGHEST that work exactly the opposite way around (i.e. the underlying modes are specified in reverse order, left to right.)

Sorry, no. You can specify recording modes in whatever order you prefer, just as you always could.