For sure there was a long period historically when there was no official arrangement. However, by 1912 – 114 years ago – when there were 48 stars, there was a singular official placement, and there's been one ever since. Making the assumption that you start forming conscious memories around 3, there's a single person alive today who's verifiably old enough to have any conscious memory of a time when the US flag's stars lacked a set order.

I can kind of get having what I call a "latent misconception" where you never find out otherwise because it never meaningfully comes up as more than a fleeting thought. (Maybe "Lucky 10,000 Syndrome" is catchier and less dry if more generalized.) But the years-long spate of jokes about it and people actually believing and repeating it is where I get frustrated by how people just say shit and never even try to consider whether it's true (especially when it's ridiculous on its face).

I get you're offering an explanation rather than a justification. This isn't directed at you.

Fun fact, prior to the stars being adopted, the Grand Union flag was literally just the British East India Company flag. Like, they didn't even have one made, they took one off a boat and said "this is ours now"