I could be over thinking this greatly and do not in anyway understand how the Clam System works,
but maybe Whale Digger knows doing it this way (backwards) discloses what the total amount to be dug will be,
as well as when the digging will end, so that the market and users don't become totally disillusioned with CLAM?
It is like a controlled dig that is stabilizing, versus the random dig where no one knows how bad it could get.
That's possible, but wouldn't it make sense to dig only half of what he has available from each block so we think he has less left than he really does?
Of course, maybe that *is* what he's doing... we just can't tell.