Dear N.,
You raise a simply fantastic question as to why we have the readings we have for Holy Week, beginning on Palm Sunday. As you no doubt noticed, this year we began the liturgy of the Blessing of Palms with what one would naturally consider the logical Gospel reading for the day, Saint Matthew 21.1ff, the Entrance of Our Lord into Jerusalem. Following the Blessing of Palms, the Eucharist includes the reading of Saint Matthew's Passion, chapter 27. During Holy Week, the Prayer Book appoints all four Passion narratives from all four Gospels to be read. The first is the Passion of Saint Matthew, then that of Saint Mark on Monday and Tuesday, the Passion of Saint Luke on Wednesday and Thursday, and the Passion of Saint John on Friday. This way, the entire written record of the saving Death and Passion of the Redeemer is proclaimed in church for the hearing and meditation of the people. The unique details of the salvific event of the Passion from each Evangelist are then collated and brought together to weave one great narration of the story of salvation. The BCP anticipates that the faithful will be in church for the liturgy every day of Holy Week in order to hear and receive the entire New Testament record of the Passion of Christ. Thus, by Easter Day, the whole preceding New Testament account of the Death of Christ has been presented in anticipation of His Resurrection.
Also, the Passion of Saint Matthew is read in church on Palm Sunday just in case someone should not be in church again until Easter Day. Even if one were to be absent from the liturgy for the whole of Holy Week, one would still hear the narrative of the Passion in advance of the Resurrection the next Sunday. This ensures that Easter will not be celebrated without first a consideration of the Passion and Crucifixion of Our Lord which makes Easter possible. There can be no Empty Tomb without Good Friday, and so the Church sets before her faithful the witness of Redemption in the Cross of Christ before the exaltation of the Easter Feast.
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My only quibble with the trad-BCP Holy Week -- which is perfectly fine, we are not under compulsion to mimic the Holy Week rites and ceremonies of the old Jerusalem pilgrims, though we certainly may -- is that Lazarus Saturday is omitted, leaving the Hosannas of Palm Sunday a tad unexplained. Perhaps, before the Psalm Sunday Entrance Processional, a quick reading of the account of the raising of Lazarus the 4-day dead in Bethany and how the news had spread to Jerusalem ahead of Christ, would be a good solution.
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