I think the 12-step chain catechism is almost certainly a composite item, but in the case of vedana & namarupa, this part of the series seems to be always together in this way. But it’s not a problem; we can say the same thing in very simple language:
The mind cannot go past the interaction of (1) an awareness of the contact between an (2) internal sense sphere & some (3) external input, because the mind (citta) is conditioned by the six senses’ operation, and cannot move beyond these conditions.
(So, vinnana-namarupa → salayatana)
The operation of each of these sense spheres is the same as saying ‘sense contact’ or simply ‘contact’. With contact one can observe three, four, or five aggregates, but always feeling, and right there it becomes possible to see whether or not craving is an actual or potential response.
(So, salayatana → phassa → vedana -->? tanha)
Steps 11-12-1-2 describe the common Wanderer understanding of the cosmos, where getting out of samsara was seen as the goal, with special knowledge of one sort or another allowing this to occur.
The Buddha’s innovation was the emphasis on clinging as the cause, instead of the other causes posited by other wanderers, but the 4-fold medical framework was not his invention. So, with craving as the diagnosis, I think of SN 12.23.
I think putting the vinnana-namarupa vortex at the base of all of these series is the correct move; a preceding ‘avijja → sankhara’ is in a space from which the mind turns back. So, with that space set aside & the epistemic vortex in view, SN 12.23 offers a very practical sort of paticcasamuppada, one observable here and now, without past life recall or kamma-clairvoyance.