[Q]

The enemy systems are seen by shared maps from other AI empires and they are much more distant than the unexplored warp points.
It seems that the distance is less important than the survey order. And I am not sure if the survey priority over warp point exploration is good: as human player I frequently give warp point exploration first priority. I still can later survey the systems.
About these list: I do not understand at all how they work. If you could explain what for example this list instruction gives you priorities, I could try some little changes myself:

// Attack Location Priority - Nearest attack location
call Sys_Prepare_For_List_Sort()
call Sys_Set_List_Sort_Field(1, lst_AI_Attack_Location_System)
call Sys_Set_List_Sort_Field(2, lst_AI_Attack_Location_Sector)
call Sys_Set_List_Sort_Field(3, lst_AI_Attack_Location_Strength)
call Sys_Set_List_Sort_Field(4, lst_AI_Attack_Location_Assigned_Strength)
call Sys_Set_List_Sort_Field(5, lst_AI_Attack_Location_Owner)
call Sys_Set_List_Sort_Field(6, lst_AI_Attack_Location_System_Distance)
call Sys_Set_List_Sort_Field(7, lst_AI_Attack_Location_Ship_ID)
call Sys_Set_List_Sort_Field(8, lst_AI_Attack_Location_Ship_Count)
call Sys_Add_List_Sort_Sort_Column(6, FALSE)
call Sys_Execute_List_Sort()