The chicken vs egg question has never been about chronology or science.

It’s been about religion vs science.

Science says the egg came first: a chicken laid an egg that was nearly imperceptibly not a chicken, so the egg was a new thing. Then it hatched and one of its descendants laid an egg that was almost imperceptibly not a not-a-chicken. Repeat ad nauseum. That’s how evolution works, with the egg coming first.

Religion says a god poofed a chicken into existence.

That’s the chicken vs egg thing. It’s not a puzzle at all, it’s just science vs religion.

I’ve always interpreted it as which came first, the chicken or the chicken egg?

But I’d just like to point out not all religions have that view of creationism vs evolution, and even within Christianity it’s really only your super conservative, and very loud, fundamentalists. Catholicism doesn’t have an official stance on evolution, iirc, the Episcopal church in the USA is fully supportive of evolution, as are most mainline Christians. Not to detract from your point or anything, I just don’t like seeing all religious people, or all Christians, lumped together with some of the worst examples of religiosity that the US has to offer.