Hi,
To set a correct priority via maniphest.edit call you need to set priority transaction value as a string. However it is not a "normal"/"wishlist" type of string, but a priority value in DB. So successful call is like this:
{"type":"priority","value":"50"}
This fails (value has to be a string):
{"type":"priority","value":50}
Call is successful but priority is set to "wishlist" (0):
{"type":"priority","value":"normal"}