According to the “first is first” maxim, the initial Inscription or “first instance” of a particular work to Bitcoin’s blockchain is considered the “official” version. Ordinals is a numbering system for satoshis, so naturally numbers have great significance. Greater value is generally afforded to numbers earlier in the Ordinals sequence.
The Bitcoin Ordinals “first instance” concept is a fuzzier, social-consensus-form of the way Bitcoin prevents double-spending. To wit; the version of a transaction first into a block becomes canonical, alternative versions are invalid. In Ordinals, alternative versions of an Inscription may still be valid but usually considered less rare and so less valuable.