wp_list_categories : how do I sort by ID when IDs are not sequential

You could do something like this:

<ul>
<?php
wp_list_categories('order_by=ID&title_li=&include=4,5,6,7,8,9,10');
wp_list_categories('order_by=ID&title_li=$include=72');
wp_list_categories('order_by=ID&title_li=&include=11,12,13,14,15,16,17, 18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41');
?>
</ul>

Just listing them in order for the include arg won’t help you since that only goes into the WHERE clause, not into the ORDER BY clause of the SQL query.