Actually, on Four Kings you could reset the fight if it was not the good order. So thoses tries weren't necessarily wipes.
However, you had to kill the first boss to be sure you had the right order (at least, I suppose so, since it was the case in normal mode), so all those tries weren't instant reset.
Zor'lok had pretty much the same problem. Hence the "left, left, leeeeeeeeeeft" you could find on some blogs/sites/forums. ^^
Diplomacy is just war by other means.