There's an official description? Where?
The recent is called newest, actually. The title is latest. And the link to it is recent. But unlike some tags, I did not yet encounter a description, what it is supposed to be. Or what exactly is new/recent/latest. The publishing date, the updating date, the release date, whatever. That a devlog can screw sorting is indeed quirky.
Appearing in recent is only big, if you have zero marketing. It is 5 minute fame. That's my opinion too, and I think I read that stance several times by leafo. But I do not recall popular sort beging regarded the same. They see the whole indexing discoverability as a bonus, which has consequences, like how they take sometimes weeks to index a thing. But of course being on top of popular is important. One needs only look at all the video comments from youtubers crosspromoting the games and themselves.