This is true. I have tried (with the knowledge that I have sort out) to group things primarily by their semantic value as having precedence over their direct use. The lang ref states:

Delays processing of definitions until they are used. Adding ,FORWARD
to a MODULE delays processing of definitions within the module until they are used.
This has two main effects: It prevents pulling in dependencies for definitions that are
never used and it allows earlier definitions to refer to later definitions...

Therefore, I felt that this was a compiler directive (an operator/option that affects the internal  graph control and/or optimization etc).