@adamhurwitz.eth
I think of Brave vertical tabs as a stack data structure and want new tabs to open and show at the top of the tabs navigation view instead of the bottom
This could be a setting under "Appearance" > "Tabs" > "Use vertical tabs" > Add setting for "Open new tabs at the top"
After my 1st 3 days of using vertical tabs again I'll be continuing because I enjoy the focused mode from the original post, using the minimize setting and keyboard shortcut to open and close the tabs view