One thing I like from another BSD is that the patches are
named for the FILES they change.

/usr/ports/foo/bar/patches/patch-Makefile_in
/usr/ports/foo/bar/patches/patch-configure

Since it's a patch per file, ORDER isn't terribly
necessary.  (so the patch-aa needn't precede patch-ab
which the current system implies).

And it's a nice way to make it easier to see what's being patched.

Bottom line:
more clarity
less ...  hmmm.  alphabetic.?

I put it out there for consideration and discussion.