We decided to remove 'left' and 'right' keywords from the syntax clause so that we could use it in both, Self Alignment and Default Alignment properties' syntax. Since them, we explicitly add those keywords for the main/inline axis properties (justify-self and justify-items).
However, this change made the place-items grammar wrong, or at least, incomplete:
https://drafts.csswg.org/css-align/#place-items-property
[ normal | stretch | <baseline-position> | <self-position> ] [ normal | stretch | <baseline-position> | <self-position> ]?