That’s nicer than what my mum would have said.
One of her favourite phrases is “There is no medication for stupidity.”
She’s very blunt.
I think you’ve missed the point behind Seasons for many players.
There’s a competitive element to it that if one was to be able to prep unfairly in advance, it would ruin the competition.
3-5min for running a CR might seem like nothing to you but we have players that can get to lvl70 in less than an hour, or complete certain conquests in that first hour, avoiding 3-5min spent on a CR is a lot. If they could do the CR before season start and have that contribute towards their seasonal progress, that’s an advantage.
So no, doing the CR before a season starts should not make the cache claimable in seasons.
Now if they really want to idiot proof the whole process, they’d release a new CR at the same time as season start… but then too many players who don’t enjoy CRs and use guides to do them would be annoyed as there won’t be time for the guide makers like Cpt D Honorseeker to make guides before a season starts. So we just gotta remember to not do a CR before a season starts.