Most websites ask the reader to begin with the newest item. That is useful when freshness is the main value. A magazine has another responsibility: it must make a collection intelligible after the date has passed.
A list can carry an argument
The order of an Issue is not neutral. A lead story establishes a question; the pieces that follow complicate it, give it a method, or bring it back to a concrete scene. The archive lets that sequence remain visible.
This does not mean every reader must start at the beginning. It means every reader can see that there is a beginning, and can choose a different entrance with some understanding of the whole.
Categories are working shelves
Docszine uses native WordPress Categories as Sections. The choice is deliberately plain. Editors get a familiar interface, and the theme can use the same vocabulary across an Issue page, an article header, and a cross-issue index.
The future reader matters
An archive is a promise made to someone who is not here yet. URLs, labels, dates, and descriptions are small acts of hospitality. They reduce the amount of context a future reader has to invent.