By definition, if God creates something it has to have an appearance of age. Whatever it is. If he created a man and a woman, they would appear to be 20,30? years old, even if they were merely a few hours old. If he created a river, the water flowing in that river would appear to have come from upstream (and before that from condensation/transportation/evaporation) even when it was only minutes old. Likewise a mature tree, if created instantly would presumably have growth rings. (I haven't figure out Adam and Eve's navels yet.)
He had to create the planets (and every celestial body) with trajectory and momentum, or everything would collapse. In the same way God had to create the stars already fully functioning. According to your way of thinking, the light could not have extended beyond a stars surface at the instant of creation. But photons on a star's surface are generated deep beneath the surface. For the universe to be created instantaneously, every star had to be created with fully developed a gravitional field, internal structure and heat transfer, rotational energy, etc. Stars had to be fully formed for the universe to function as the Creator intended. Just like living things had the appearance of age so did the universe including stars.
So why did He not make it so it appeared that life had been evolving on Earth for 3 billion years?
Do you have any evidence that the universe was not created 5 minutes ago, with we living having been created with our "false memories" intact?