This. In the dark days of 3d6 in order, you rolled the three (later four) prime reqs in order to see which would be highest, determining what should be your class (str = fighter, int = magic user, etc) you were. Then you rolled to see how tough and charismatic you were.
Woe to the guy whose scores were 9, 12, 11, 8, 16, 14
I was thinking earlier that it might be an interesting experiment to present ability scores in the order that they are likely to matter to the "character" of the character.
There might be better interpretations out there, but I was thinking something like: Charisma, Wisdom, Intelligence, Strength, Dexterity, Constitution.
I would be curious to see if mental stats were actually dumped less if you put them up at the front.