Sequence is where everyone starts and where the least money is.
Why it matters
Reordering twelve stops within one neighbourhood might save eight minutes. Moving three of those stops to the day where their neighbours already are might save forty. The two decisions feel similar and differ by an order of magnitude, because assignment decides how far apart the stops are at all, and sequence only decides the path between them.
How you notice it slipping
Technicians routinely drive a different order than the plan. Sometimes that is local knowledge worth capturing — a school zone at three, a one-way system, a customer who is never in before ten. Sometimes it is a sign the plan was never credible.
What to do
There is one case where sequence genuinely carries the day: when time windows are tight enough that only a few orders are feasible at all. Then the order is not a refinement, it is the difference between keeping the promises and missing them.
Ask why the order changed rather than insisting it be followed. The answer is either a constraint worth recording, in which case the plan improves permanently, or a habit worth discussing. Then spend the real effort one level up, on which stops belong together at all.