<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">When we need seats but only *s (blocked seats) remain on the seat map, automation assigns the *s in E- from front to back, and then the *s in E+ from front to back.</font>
So, the "pecking order" really has nothing to do with anything when unblocking occurs.
And it's useful to know that the blocked seats are unblocked from front to back. That is an incentive to avoid the front rows of Economy Plus, if you want to increase the probability of getting an empty seat next to you.
Kathy