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Nonlethal damage seems to have changed significantly in Starfinder, but the rules are very short and open to interpretation.
If I'm reading the rules correctly (p. 252), the only time the difference between lethal and nonlethal occurs is when the total pushes you to 0 hp. If this is correct, doing 99 points of nonlethal damage to a 100 hp creature and then 1 of lethal kills it. However, doing the reverse order would not.
The reason I'm not sure if this is the case is because the falling damage rules (p. 400) appear to be the same as Pathfinder, and in them deliberately jumping turns the first 1d6 of damage to nonlethal...which would have no effect in the new rules! Even assuming we applied the nonlethal last, in contradiction to the text, unless that damage was the amount that killed the person, it would also have no effect.
Is Nonlethal no longer tracked separately from lethal damage? If so, the falling rules need to be corrected.
The reason I'm not sure if this is the case is because the falling damage rules (p. 400) appear to be the same as Pathfinder, and in them deliberately jumping turns the first 1d6 of damage to nonlethal...which would have no effect in the new rules!
It matters if I jump down 10 ft and have 6 or fewer HP.
But yes, I believe your interpretation of the rules for nonlethal damage is correct: the difference only matters if the damage taken happens to reduce you to 0 HP.
Granted, in that specific instance it could make a difference. It's a bit odd they take great pains to give several examples of how the damage should be divided up, though, and in none of them would it make a difference.
Surely one of the rules must be a mistake?
Oops, looks like there's already a thread for this. Please ignore this!