is this due to "bestmatch" suggestions being shown first? I turned off alot (and made the results rather long) to get more out of it. These are modified values from the defaults:

    browser.urlbar.maxRichResults   22 
    browser.urlbar.quicksuggest.migrationVersion     2 
    browser.urlbar.quicksuggest.scenario  history 
    browser.urlbar.showSearchSuggestionsFirst         false 
    browser.urlbar.suggest.bestmatch              false 
    browser.urlbar.suggest.remotetab              false 
    browser.urlbar.suggest.topsites          false 
    browser.urlbar.suggest.weather              false 
    browser.urlbar.tabToSearch.onboard.interactionsLeft 0 
    browser.urlbar.tipShownCount.searchTip_onboard 4
    browser.urlbar.speculativeConnect.enabled         false 
    browser.urlbar.shortcuts.quickactions  true 

the code and sql that determines the behaviour for this is at

https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/source/browser/compone... https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/source/browser/compone...

I get a lot out of this