I remember very clearly that it sorted by vB version by default because when I updated all of my hacks to the newer versions, it would always put the highest version at the top. It doesn't bother me, but I do remember it doing that.
Lets just be very clear here - it does not, and never has, sorted by anything other than releasedate (by default). I have the code (that Xenon wrote) in front of me, it's never changed. The only way it could do anything else is if you had the sort order in the initial url (like if you used a shortcut or link in someones profile).
at the very first days of vb3 the sections vb2 and vb3 were not seperated, during these days it was sorted by vbversion, to make it easier to find hacks for your vbversion, but since the day there were different sections for vb2, vb3 templates... they have always been sorted by releasedate