Could it be like a lock pick process where you start from the left and see if you get further or can throw away that guess, so by having the "choices" be at the beginning you don't have to make them again and again? (and for whatever reason doesn't/can't cache the prefix)? Or could it be like when counting
most of the variation is at the left and you only rarely see changes at the right? Would be interesting to get this answer from from someone who knows hashcat and isn't just pulling answers out of the air like me :)
That just makes it even more confusing that it uses longer to vary the right than the left – is the specific hash algorithm used not "balanced" (or whatever the term of art is) the way it ideally/theoretically should be?
