It’s optimized for reading and use: the first time you see a query written by another developer, the interesting bit is what data it returns (the select part). Once you know that, you may be interested in the how, where does that data come from? Same for functions or methods, you first see the signature, input and output structures, before you see the implementation.
Good point, I didn't think of it like that and, oddly, I do often advocate for writing things "backwards" from highest level of abstraction to lowest. Maybe there is a good reason SQL has stuck around.
