TL;DR:
I'm able to mostly accomplish what I want with modding with the [naming:last word] tag but there are times the naming would be a lot less awkward and allow for more precise modding if a [naming:first word] tag.
For example, if I want to be able to make a single fiber craft "Weave wool cloth" I can have the game label my cloth "Green wool cloth" only if I named the yarn "Wool yarn dyed green" so that "green" is the last word. Otherwise I'd have to have 8 different crafts each calling for a specific starting material "Green cloth" from "Green yarn", "Blue cloth" from "Blue yarn" etc, and if I then wanted to make clothing the menu would get completely out of control for 15 different clothing options (shirt, cloak, apron etc) times however many colors I wished to represent in my dyeing mod.
If there were a [naming:first word] tag I could streamline it to only a few menu options where the color tag gets carried through the process and I still get the fun customization I'm working on. So "blue wool yarn" could get processed through a single weave craft into "blue wool cloth" through a single "Make a shirt" craft into "blue wool shirt" each time renaming the previous item into the next one based on the first word.