Aaron Scott-Boddendijk
Comments
This is still an issue and was reported again (now marked Resolved Invalid - apparently random property order is a feature) in MC-151790. All attempts to have this small server-management annoyance (which will have a trivial fix I expect) seem to eventually get closed without resolution.
This is still an issue in recent editions. Minecraft continues to write properties in a manner that reorders the contents - a function of the hash-order (Java-version dependent) and which entries are in the properties map (configuration and Minecraft version dependent).
I expect the cause is simply that Minecraft is using the rather naive property writing logic built into the ancient class in Java. This JDK issue is tracking a proposed change to provide deterministic writing order and would, I expect, resolve most complaints in this Minecraft issue. However, depending on the JDK solution arrived at (likely in Java 18), Minecraft may need to opt-in to a new storage method.