I largely disagree with the universality attributed to this 'rule'. It's just that different 'groupings' are usually less useful.

E.g. it is far less likely that you'd want to specify that the "green knife" entity is to be used for whittling. It is far more likely that you'd want to specify that the "whittling knife" is green.

Similarly you're unlikely to group 'lovely knife' as the most low-level entity to which you'd add higher leverl characterisations.

Some of the other ones though are reasonably interchangeable, as long as it is understood that the focus is slightly different each time.

E.g. a priceless old knife, and old priceless knife mean slightly different things, and you'd choose the order depending on whether you wanted to emphasize that the old knife happens to be priceless, as opposed to that the priceless knife happens to be old.