Renewal of Spousal visa - Was in the UK as tourist when spousal visa was granted

Sorry in advance for the long post; So, with the help of the great folks here in the subreddit, I had navigated the home office maze and gotten my spousal visa. My application was on December 2022, but we couldn't stay apart for too long as it was when there was huge delays with the applications and we didn't knew when a decision would be made. Flew to the UK at the start of February 2023(had the keep my passport service from VFS)(Got the stamp that said "No public funds"), and was informed a decision had happened, at the end of February, then got an email that I was approved.

I was already in the UK and didn't had the resources to pay for another flight and return, so I had just sent my passport back directly to VFS from the UK to Brazil. After the Royal Mail delay fiasco, it was received a couple weeks in March, and then they sent it back to my home. Asked my parents to send it back to the UK, and got it back with the Entry Clearance at the start of April, saying it was valid from the start of March. Collected the BRP afterwards.

Just in case, I had scheduled a trip to Dublin so I would get a passport stamp saying I got in, in the middle of April, but I did not knew at the time that you don't get a stamp going from Ireland into the UK, only from the UK into Ireland(Got a stamp going from UK to Ireland)\_.

Ended up scheduling another flight, this time to Brussels, in the middle of May. Got stamps showing I got in Brussels and out the next day. Finally got an UK stamp over the Entry Clearance, saying I got in May, 15 days before it expired. The officer joked I was cutting close. Briefly explained that I was already in and just got the stamp 'just in case', for which he just looked at me seemingly slightly startled but he then shrugged.

Flew back to Brazil for a couple weeks at the start of June(still 2023) to sort out my room and bring the rest of my stuff, and returned in the middle of June. This time I got a Stamp from the mid of June, and over the top of it, the officer manually wrote my BRP on top of it.

**tl;dr of the above:** Was in the UK before being approved, sent my passport back to my country to get the entry clearance, got my BRP, went out of the UK(twice, first time was a mistake, Ireland) just in case to have me in the system as having entered the UK.

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**So now here's my main question:** Can I put the date that shows on my BRP/Entry Clearance(valid from) as the "When you arrived in the UK", and the equivalent on the "For how long have you been living in the UK?"(2 years and 8 months)? If yes, should I mention that I was in the UK and made the application before coming to the UK(in december 2022), got approved while in the UK(february 2023), and sent passport back to be stamped with the entry clearance and collected the BRP? I was reading around and saw people saying they did this(being approved while in the UK), but I was not able to find someone that did this and also applied for the renewal from the date of the approval. Or should I just bite the bullet and just say that I got in May?(I'm interested in applying for citizenship and looking for the future as the requirement for it is living for 5 years in the UK, so if I renew my visa saying I got in May, I'd lose a couple months, and might need to renew the visa again a third time before being able to apply for citizenship)