Historische redenen liggen daar aan ten grondslag.
"One of the more common layouts (used on GM Hydra-Matics and Borg-Warner automatics, among others) back in those dark ages was PNDLR. That seems pretty comparable to PRNDL, right? What could be wrong with that? Let's think about it. You're in a ‘50s era, say, Studebaker, a big heavy car, and you want to race some punk in a hopped-up Model A at a stoplight. Winner gets your wildly fickle girlfriend (I'd say "or boyfriend" but, come on, this is the ‘50s). So you drop into N, rev that big straight 6, and when the lights turn green, jam it into L for maximum torque off the line. Instead, you stomp the gas, and rapidly back up the hood of the Crosley behind you. Because, dummy, R is right there at the end, after L, and it's alarmingly easy to pull the lever all the way over instead of stopping that one important stop before.
This scenario was actually common enough that it was Chapter 2 in Ralph Nader's Unsafe at Any Speed; apparently that book wasn't just all about taking our Corvairs away. In addition to the wrong-direction takeoff scenario, layouts that didn't separate forward and reverse gears with neutral were criticized as well, both for safety and technical reasons, since both people and machines aren't that crazy about abrupt changes of direction. Eventually, the PRNDL shift order was mandated by law, specifically US Department of Transportation Standard No. 102."
https://jalopnik.com/why-prndl-5870701
