Regarding order banks - I don't believe they will close the order banks until the 23 is nearly ready to start scheduling. They COULD stop prioritizing Retail orders, and go back to building a mix of vehicles at the same time.
Talking to my dealer last week, he said that Ford is really pushing the retail order system over Stock units. They believe they sell for higher profit, and they have nearly no overhead on them. From a manufacturer perspective it's a win-win. I don't agree that will work out in the long run, and eventually (a few years) dealers will go back to having a large inventory of stock units.
I say that because, while I'm sure there are fleet customers screaming right now, I believe in the next few years, dealers will try to transition buyers into ordering rather than buying a unit in stock. Therefore, I expect Ford to continue to put a major emphasis on retail (custom) orders.
I may be wrong and maybe the order banks will close soon, but I don't think they will.
Regarding Adaptive Steering - that theory does not hold up because it's standard on the limited and optional on the KR. Under that theory, they would be building Limiteds but not KR, instead it's the other way around.
The best theory on why they are building KR with AS is because they have those color steering wheels.