The top level op mode word clear is reserved for completely non-disruptive commands. Right now, the only such operation for network interfaces in VyOS is clearing interface counters.

The current commands family has a command for clearing all interface counters (clear interfaces counters) and puts the interface first: clear interfaces ethernet eth0 counters, for example. That requires command definition trickery to make clear interfaces counters (a keyword counters in place of an interface type), clear interfaces ethernet, and clear interfaces ethernet eth0 all valid.

If we move that command family to clear interfaces counters <type> [name], that will naturally remove the need for trickery (clear interfaces counters will simply be a parent of all subcommands), and will also make it more obvious that it's possible to clear interface counters, as opposed to the current command that is nested inside interface names and types.