Plex is already tracking which episodes are played/unplayed; seems simple enough to add a toggle for the show settings to only display un-played episodes.
This might be an easier alternative to the request for separating playback order and sort order.
If we can filter out the played episodes using an ascending sort order would prob be the preferred sort order (oldest un-played is always at the top) and a byproduct is the playback order would be in desired direction.
@anon18523487 is this something you all are already looking into implementing?