That's just the way it works I'm afraid, and yes it is counter intuitive.

There are better alternatives to Journal, but unfortunately they require spending some cash.

Many people love and adore One Note. I used to as well, but after seeing how many other Tablet users are using Agilix's GoBinder I downloaded the trial of that this week and I'm in love. When you insert a page in notes in that app it comes to the front straight away, which is much better. The app though is geared very much towards students, but if you can get over the mental hurdle of converting "course" to "project" (takes about 2 minutes) then everything is really good. Well worth a look.

I think the URL is www.gobinder.com (could be wrong though - go do a Google for it)