When sorting by a relationship field, the sort should be alphabetical by the string that is actually rendered in the admin UI.
Currently the support appears to be alphabetical by the ObjectId.toString() value of the related document's _id property.
many: false) and set defaultSort on the relationship owner to the property name of the relationship. name values. | Software | Version
| ---------------- | -------
| Keystone | 4.0.0-beta.5
| Node | 7.6.0
Did you ever figure this out?
I did not.