I often find when I’m reading posts here that even without checking the byline I can tell which author wrote it, based more on their phrasing, paragraph construction, etc.

Not what I learned in school, but I can go with it. Besides, I’m the type to be deliberately ungrammatical when it suits a purpose.

However, when it comes to which flows more easily, I find “never to nest” much cleaner. Compare the emphasis present in the two phrases: “NE-ver to NEST” versus “to NE-ver NEST”. My personal sense of rhythm in prose usually causes me to prefer three-syllable feet over two-syllable feet.

Of course, meaning comes first, but my two cents on the ebb and flow of the two phrases.

According to this, splitting infinitives is not necessarily wrong.

In this case, “never to nest” and “to never nest” hold identical meanings. Per Orlando’s suggestion, I personally think “to never nest” verbally flows more easily, but either is grammatically OK.

Just because Gene Roddenberry split an infinitive in the opening of Star Trek doesn’t mean it’s grammatical. The adverb “never” must be outside the formation “to nest” to be grammatical.