Hello,

Nick Dokos <ndokos@gmail.com> writes:

> Is the "* on column 0 is a headline" convention a consequence of the
> dependence on outline.el? Or is it just historical baggage? I cannot
> remember the grammar rules, but I'm wondering if the parser could be
> made to say "not a headline" in this situation, and if so, what the
> consequences might be (particularly, the bad consequences).
> ...

This is inherent on how the syntax is defined, and how the parser is
implemented. As an outliner, the main syntactic element in an Org
document is the headline. Everything else has a lower priority.
Therefore, a block will not be parsed before a headline.

...