Reason for x86 descriptor type priority over present?

[superfury]

Why does the type check have priority over the present bit check? If it isn't present, then wouldn't the type be invalid anyways? Why does it throw #GP(selector) instead of #NP(selector) when both are the case?

[peterferrie]

I suppose that checking present first might trigger someone to try to bring it into memory before finding that it's not usable anyway.