I found this odd thing that helps show why this provokes disagreement:

https://www.autodidacts.io/disorder-of-operations/

In this fellow's view, following "always left to right" as an imperative second only to PEMDAS, he would state firmly that the answer to this equation is 9.

However, in his own bullet point 4, he references "Implied Multiplication" (also known as "Multiplication denoted by juxtaposition," even going so far as to cite it 3 times as an academically strong convention and a common standard practice.

Then...he just sort of discards it. For no clear reason. With "Implied Multiplication," the answer is 1. Without it, 9. The only argument he gives against using the academic standard is that "Most decent calculators have no truck for it, and doggedly follow the left-to-right order for division and multiplication."

Then, he...doggedly follows the left-to-right order himself. Bizarre. By using the word "doggedly," he seems to imply the calculator's method is inappropriately rigid. But that's the horse he backs anyway, giving no other reason for discarding implied multiplication.

And here we are! Absolutely nowhere.