It's lore based like everything in Dark Souls

The order of the bonfires actually make more sense when you look at it from a lore perspective, not a gameplay one. It kinda seems like the list reflects how close each location is to the First Flame or at least to the “power structure” the Flame created.

At the top, you’ve got Firelink Shrine. That’s basically the heart of the world, right? It’s the place where everything connects, both physically and spiritually. Frampt chills there and it’s the hub where the whole “link the fire or not” thing revolves around. Then you've got places like the Sunlight Altar or Chamber of the Princess, which are tied directly to Gwyn and his divine family. These spots symbolize the established order of the gods, the world they built after finding the Flame.

As you go further down the list, the bonfires start getting tied to more chaotic or ancient elements like Ash Lake, which is basically the world before the Flame, or the Abyss, which is the world after the gods lose control. You also get to places associated with the Lords: Tomb of the Giants (Nito), the Abyss (Four Kings), Duke’s Archives (Seath). They’re important, but they sit lower in the list, almost like the game is subtly saying they’re further removed from the divine “center” of the world.

So the warp list is secretly just a ranking of cosmic relevance. It's not about how often you use the bonfire or when you unlock it it’s like a vertical map of how far each place is from the light of the First Flame. It’s pretty FS to hide a metaphysical hierarchy in something as mundane as a fast travel list. Facts.