Should DnD combinations commute?

[Tokiko Mima]

Doing this would void the standing ruling of applying Maximize and Empower to the same spell and make these metamagic more powerful together.

Currently, you maximize the damage then add 50% of the base damage to the result. This results in lower overal damage than if it was applied in other ways. e.g. 10d6 Maximized + Empowered fireball does 60 + .5 * (~35) or 77.5 damage.

If it had to commute, then the you would need to apply the +50% at either time, but they would be equal. 10d6 Fireball becomes 60 Maximized and 90 Empowered, or in reverse, 10d6 becomes 15d6 Empowered, and 90 when Maximized.

It effectively doubles the power of Empower without increasing the metamagic slot cost.