The intention of the format was to provide a more accurate representation of the rules.
The ANY AREA and ANY ZONE drop-downs have a couple of functions: they work as parameters for the rules and as filters to help you find the parameter you want to use. If you are looking for a specific zone to activate the rule from, you can utilize ANY AREA, which will show you all zones in the system to pick from. If you do not want a specific zone, then the ANY AREA and ANY ZONE options are your choices. Reviewing this I did locate a bug in the filtering.
The WHENEVER ANY prefix is only related to the specific ANY ALARM rule. I believe the devs struggled with how to phrase this. They were attempting to have it read WHENEVER ANY area 1 ALARM, but what happens is when you combine WHENEVER ANY and Any Area, you get WHENEVER ANY Any Area ALARM. Removing the ANY is less descriptive if a single area is selected but redundant if the Any Area option is selected.
The WHENEVER ANY ALARM IS ACTIVATED rule includes all ALARMS, such as FIRE ALARM, CO ALARM, BURGLAR ALARM, MEDICAL ALARM, PANIC ALARM, WATER ALARM, and TEMPERATURE ALARM. This does not include TROUBLE conditions, for which there is a separate rule if needed. The WHENEVER ALARM rules are based on alarms shown as such in the system and, if enabled, would report to the central station as dispatched alarms.
The Alarm Engine also has the WHENEVER ANY BURGLAR ALARM rule. You can also utilize ANY or specific FIRE ALARM, CO ALARM, MEDICAL ALARM, WATER ALARM, and TEMPERATURE ALARM activations. These can be filtered by Area or Sensor.