Magento's uiClass/uiElement objects [have a feature](http://magento.stackexchange.com/questions/138936/what-are-the-import-exports-defaults-for-in-a-uielement-object) that allow them, at the time of instantiation, to populate a property of their own (`imports`) from a `uiRegistry` registered object, or populate a property from another object (`exports`) from a third `uiRegistry` object.

What's not clear from the implementation is 

- Are there `imports`/`exports` sensitive the the order components are loaded? (i.e. naive implementation)
- Or will the property "linking" functionality retry until it finds a registered object in the `uiRegistry`
- Or is the "link" lazy loaded?
- Does this behavior change if the uiClass/uiElement objects are used stand-alone vs. being used in a `Magento_Ui/js/core/app` application

I'd assume a naive implementation -- but there's a lot of javascript promise use and deferred callback loading going on in `Magento_Ui/js/core/app` that's not easy to follow.  That, plus poor documentation of how the object system works or its intent makes this difficult to know for sure without fully unspooling a `Magento_Ui/js/core/app` app.  

I'm hoping someone already has the answer and can spare me that code dive.