Those are not equivalent queries. Read up on the syntax of FROM; particularly, that JOIN binds more tightly than comma.
I see this-
"A JOIN clause combines two FROM items, which for convenience we will refer to as “tables”, though in reality they can be any type of FROM item. Use parentheses if necessary to determine the order of nesting. In the absence of parentheses, JOINs nest left-to-right. In any case JOIN binds more tightly than the commas separating FROM-list items."
What is meant by nesting? Or binding for that matter? I wouldn't expect increasing from/join_collapse_limit to be helpful to the original poster since they haven't exceeded default limit of 8. Any further clarification elsewhere you could point to?