Ugh.. This is driving me crazy! Yes, the adding of the rule "playlist is music" fixes this issue when you're syching an ipad or iphone, etc. BUT, that very rule causes iTunes Match to fail! So for any of my devices I have iTunes match enabled for...which is all of them now, my playlists are all jumbled. Here's an example of how weird this issue is:
On my iPad I can see my playlists. When I click on the playlist the music order seems random. I have to select a track to play. Once I've done that, I can click on the picture of the album up at the top where it lists how far into the track you are, etc. and that changes the screen to a full sized picture of the album. At the bottom of THIS screen is another playlist icon (bottom right of the screen). If I tap THAT item, suddenly my playlist is listed CORRECTLY. I can then select the first track of the playlist and tracks will play in the proper order after that.
This is absolutely insane and so opposite of Apple's "it's simple" and "it just works" mantra that it's not even funny. To play my smart playlists in order on my iPad or iphone with iTunes Match enabled, I have to select a playlist, get a track playing, change the display to show the album cover, tap the playlist icon at the bottom of THAT new display, and THEN I can select the first track in my playlist and everything is good. Something needs to be done about this. It's been an issue since iTunes Match was activated. BTW, iTunes Match won't synch smart playlists with the "playlist is music" rule selected because it says that 'playlists that reference other playlists' cannot by synched. It was crazy to have to add that rule to begin with but I could live with it. Now, there's simply no apparent way to fix the issue.