Your screen capture shows that you are in Project mode, so the sorting is on a Project basis, and you've only got one selected. If you want to permanently reorder those Actions in that Single-Action List (or a Project), select the bunch of them, and choose Edit->Sort->Name (if you wanted to sort by name, or a different choice for something else) and it will reorder them just as if you had dragged each one into the desired place. The View bar sorting controls simply change the order in which the current window displays the data -- think of it like the column headers in a Finder list view.
Now, if you want to see all of the selected actions sorted by name without regard to which project they are in, you want to be in Context mode. Then the View bar settings will work based on the individual actions (within each group, if you are using a grouped display).
Now, if you want to see all of the selected actions sorted by name without regard to which project they are in, you want to be in Context mode. Then the View bar settings will work based on the individual actions (within each group, if you are using a grouped display).