Let me regale you with a story of yore.
Back in the before times, cars were heavy and rear wheel drive. You could do almost anything with the tires and things were fine.
Next came the front wheel drives and things were still good, but more complicated. Yes, you could still replace any two tires but sometimes the rears got ignored and became old, dry, and uneven. This was Bad.
Then one fine day a test was done (pretty sure it was tire rack). The test found that new tires on the front and worn but legal tires on the back made cars spin in the wet. If the new tires were on the back, it just understeered. This was deemed preferable as nobody can drive anymore and lawsuits fly like doves at a Prince concert, so New Tires on the Back because the law of the land.
On a front wheel drive, obviously 4 matching skins is preferred but until that test came out, new on the front was the rule. Just make sure the rears are decent.