The new Extensions button is still under development and it will likely be possible to reorder the extensions shown in its drop-down list.

You can try this workaround to order the list and first pin all icons to the toolbar via the gear icon. Unpin each of them in reverse order, each item you unpin is added at the top of the list, so the last item you unpin becomes the first in the list.

Thanks for the reply cor-el, this gives me some peace. I appreciate the additional tip, but I think I'll just wait for the feature to mature rather than trying to use the workaround. My main extensions are still on the toolbar so I won't fiddle with it for now. I really hope that they do merge the new button and the old one so it takes up less space and lets us intermix the built-in tools with the extensions however we wish. I'll watch for developments. Thanks again.

Further, when extensions say that they "Can't read and change data on this site", does that mean that the extension is broken, nonfunctional, locked out, etc., or are we required to do something to restore it to functionality? -And if so, do we have to do this for every extension, on every site?

That line refers to "host" (or site) permission, which is needed to inject scripts into the site or manipulate requests to the server.

Many add-ons need host permissions in order to work, and the ones you installed a while ago should continue to work fine because you granted permission at install time. Newer extensions written for Manifest v3 will not be granted host permissions at install time. Instead, you can choose to grant them only when needed (for the current page load), or on a site by site basis (for current and future page loads), or for all sites at once. This will be more obvious when you install your first Manifest v3 extension. (If you want to see how that works, I've played with this one to get a better understanding for myself, but I don't actually use it for anything else: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/amazon-alternatives/ )

Many add-ons do not need host permissions because they work with other features/functions of the browser, such as bookmarks or history.

Thanks jscher2000. With your added input and a bit more reading, I consider (most of) my issues addressed. It looks like the answer to my last two questions is that yes, we may be required to authorize some of our add-ons for each site, but thankfully, so I read, we can make these permissions permanent rather than having to reactivate them every time we come back to that particular page (which, AFAIK, you can't do with Brave, which annoys to no end - of course, there is the possibility that I just don't know what I'm doing.) BTW, I see that there is relief coming for the folks who want to be able to move the extensions button (which relief will mostly be a blessing to the devs when all the bitching and complaining ends!) I still, though, agitate for the new extensions button and the old overflow button to be merged into a single moveable button, with the ability to intermix the built-in function buttons with the add-on buttons, as we wish. Thanks again to everyone there, and I consider this issue closed.