Predate ≠ independent
Well, to be honest actually.
Finality is the source of all Honkai-related phenomena in the world so we could equate
Honkai's characteristics to Finality technically. But that's not the main argument here,
the main argument about Finality is that the Cocoon of Finality itself could catalyze the Herrscher of Finality using Imaginary Energy. Herrschers are
stated to be "pure concepts" that is derived from the
imaginary concept. There's not really a single scan in Honkai saying that time predates Finality itself, I think everyone who's knowledgeable about Honkai understands this.
Through the Imaginary,
one can add Imaginary properties to objects to make them Imaginary by abstracting it, or
Kiana destroying Imaginary itself to destroy the Imaginary authority and an Imaginary Space. Honkai Energy is basically
Imaginary internal energy, the powersource of the Cocoon of Finality is technically Imaginary Energy anyway.
All Herrschers,
simply put are just projections of Finality. Which means, the Herrschers that are "pure concepts" are just well: Projections for Finality to manifest in the first place.
So, the full context is like: Herrschers
are imaginary concepts, they're
born through Imaginary Energy as
abstract concepts that are independent from their own. This is why the
Herrscher of Finality, who has authority over time is
unaffected by time. Because it was explained that Herrschers are independent from their own authority, to be more precise. This is like shown with how Divine Keys
cannot harness the
same power as Herrscher, but
Herrscher are able to do that with their own respective Divine Keys.
So, Herrscher's ability to
manipulate higher-dimensional realm, it also can be used to manipulate time hence the entire manipulating time ≠ manipulating Finality stuff.
Time itself is a primordial abstract concept that acts as a
sequence and causality basically.
Time also has its own concepts and laws, which is something that's
outside of the universe (Yes, world here is universe by the way but I don't think it matters much for concept manip).
Now, Paths are just congregations of Imaginary Energy. It'd be more precise if Path is CM1 and it's respective Aeon because it's just congregations of Imaginary Energy tbh.
That's the entire explanation.