M4L Parameter Assignment is random

Ah, I see the blue-hand thing is what locks ableton to a "top 8" paradigm. Interesting that it would mean max4live knobs are out of sequence.

Ok!

I figured out the quirk! It's a good one - solution below

In my screen shot - I've created 3 dials from left to right. Initially they all worked in order. as live.dial, live.dial[1], live.dial[2]

I fiddled with the visual order - all the knobs worked the same. I didn't grok the whole python scrip that CSS makes - but I imagined it'd be operating on the names of each knob and putting them in order. So I changed the last knob and changed "Long Name" it to "Z." My third knob controlled it.

Then I changed the Long Name of the third knob to "A." My first knob controlled it.

Hopefully, if the list is always sorted by order of long name (maybe also scripting name).... and the display name is "Short name"

I've included a screenshot where the third dial on the right, is controlled by my first knob on my controller - due to the long name being "a." I'm very underslept so I hope this is helpful to someone.

Reference:
I believe the line is here: self.song().view.selected_track.view.selected_device.parameters[x]
https://docs.cycling74.com/max8/vignettes/live_object_model#DeviceParameter

So the problem is not necessarily CSS. Except that it relies on the iteration through the array of parameters by index. Assuming the sorting method Ableton uses is safe - relying on alphanumeric sorting is probably safe.

On native ableton effects: It seems that the knobs by "blue hand" are the same as CSS knob arrangements. Ableton probably names their "long names / scripting names" according to order.