Why does Xmult proc at the start?

[Millenia]

Literally no point in multiplying 3-5 wtf

[Mel Gibson]

Jokers trigger from left to right, except for the ones that trigger on specific times, like after playing certain cards. You can rearrange the jokers at the top to change the order in which each of them triggers.
You can do the same thing with the played cards in your hand. For example, if you're going to play a hand with a scoring holographic (+10 mult) and a scoring polychrome (x1.5 mult), it is better to move the polychrome to the right of the holograph before playing.

[Millenia]

Originally posted by Mel Gibson:

Jokers trigger from left to right, except for the ones that trigger on specific times, like after playing certain cards. You can rearrange the jokers at the top to change the order in which each of them triggers.
You can do the same thing with the played cards in your hand. For example, if you're going to play a hand with a scoring holographic (+10 mult) and a scoring polychrome (x1.5 mult), it is better to move the polychrome to the right of the holograph before playing.

The joker that gives Xmult based on kings in hand always trigger first.

[Mel Gibson]

Originally posted by Millenia:

The joker that gives Xmult based on kings in hand always trigger first.

Well, that joker is one of the

Originally posted by Mel Gibson:

except for the ones that trigger on specific times

The joker you mentioned belongs to the category of jokers triggered by individual cards held on hand. Its order still matter when used with other jokers in the same category. If you have that joker and the one that gives a +mult for each queen held in hand, placing the Xmult one to the right will yield a higher score than having it on the left.
And yes, these two jokers still take precedence over the majority of the other jokers, which is not great due to the problem you've mentioned. If instead they were triggered AFTER the majority of the other jokers, we would have the opposite problem and we would be complaining about the +mult joker based on queens held in hand triggering after most Xmult jokers.

One solution, I think, would be to simply remove this "on held" category, merging it with the "independent" category. The problem is that then the Mime would have to be hard coded to specifically call for the other jokers currently on the "on held" category. In fact, I imagine the Mime was the whole reason this category was differentiated from the "independent" one in the first place.

Take a look at this for more info about these "categories" I'm talking about:
https://balatrogame.fandom.com/wiki/Activation_Sequence
If it wasn't for the Mime, I think the category 4 could be merged with 5 and the problem you mentioned would not exist.

TL;DR I agree with you, but maybe things were programmed the way they are to avoid some obscure problems we can't easily see right away.

[RazzberryMocha]

The timing of certain flat mult and X mult effects will require different strategies and joker setups. Something like steel cards or the baron joker giving x1.5 for each king in hand before your other jokers can activate might seem useless, but combined with effects that can increase your flat mult before these take place can give some easy X mult. Some examples could be mult cards, jokers that give flat mult whenever certain cards are triggered, or a highly leveled hand.