Right, yes, sure, whatever. Since you've evidently got the experience that I apparently lack, you'll know that this point is irrelevant, since the topic at hand is Standard C, and not whatever some random implementation happens to do... so I'm not sure what your point is. But of course perhaps it would be obvious to a more experienced practitioner.

C standard reference: https://port70.net/~nsz/c/c11/n1570.html#5.1.2.2.1

(A freestanding environment may start anywhere - but such environments are unusual.)