I think we could even still use %somesection% !
The confusion created would not be any greater than the difference between defined and intrinsic functions y most languages.
As there is no way to assign variables, the logigal conditional operations 'if' or 'if not' (what sould be 'ifnot' to simplyfy parsing) could turn to if = and if #
Also to avoid problems with a future 'if >' (if greater) (example: {{ if > %secuential%| dosomething}} ) perhaps Mars idea to use words instead of signs (equal, notequal, greater, less..) would be better.
In any case, you are right, we should think twice about changes and new creations, and polish definitions before implementing, to have more consistent syntax and avoid some strange orders like in substring and cut. First parameter (as in most languages) the object to work with, then how -> substring "thestring", form where, towhere, like it's in repeat: repeat what, howmanytimes.
urlvar will be used a lot less than sections, and there is think it contributes to see where the value comes from, because there are no intrinsic values for %sort% etc. , and perhaps nobody includes a section with that name.