There's a simple confounding reason for this. The earlier authors are in the author list, the more likely they are to be actively contributing. If there's a spa

There's a simple confounding reason for this. The earlier authors are in the author list, the more likely they are to be actively contributing. If there's a sparse contributor who doesn't respond, who has many papers already, or who is not actively involved in the final read-throughs, they will likely be somewhere in the middle of the author list and may miss that their middle initial is not correct. In contrast, if you are a first author, you will make damned sure your exact precise name is there, as your impact factor and future success hinges on the total number of papers you have.