It’s so the live wire disconnects first if you pull the cable out - it’s the shortest, then neutral, then ground. Whoever designed this really thought of everything.

A little bit of that im sure but L plugs are much better at being plugged in behind furniture

I doubt it.
Tripping over a cable is as likely to damage the socket as it is to rip the cable out of the plug.
Any appliance that increases risk by being unplugged should probably not be using a consumer connection...

I think the 3 pin layout caused a lot of headaches, and the integrated fuse required a user-servicable plug.
So it would have to be a split-shell design of some type, where the appliance cable would have to be cable-gripped to the same part as the plug/socket pins.
Thus, a bottom-entry (heh) cable grip and a removable back plate that can only be unscrewed when it's unplugged.
This was all in a time of bakelite. Plastic wasn't flexible.

But no, I think tripping over an early bakelite g-type (I think it's officially a g-type) plug cable would likely shatter the plug and pull the pins out of the socket... If it didn't also damage the socket.