Character Creation Before or After Gameplay Rules?

I'm questioning the reasoning behind placing the Character Creation chapter before the Gameplay chapter.

Though, because every rulebook does it, it needs some thought before it's locked in.

The obvious reason rulebooks do this is, is to ensure players create a character they want to roleplay first. Only afterwards, once they understand the rules better, should they attempt to game the system and beg the GM to reroll stats or start a new character. Surely the player cannot be blamed for the points spent in 'Blather' and the GM is crippling the team unnecessarily by not allowing a statistic change.

My opinion is that the player cannot be blamed. It feels like some games include 'trick' abilities that will never be as useful as others, and they try to hide how the ability will be used (or not) deep within the rules. And the game writers probably shouldn't be blamed either (because I'm one. I mean; even though only including 'useful' abilities was a major part of writing the Night of the Crusades gameplay and advancement sections, some will be encountered depending on the style of game being run). Let's blame GMs for not including enough versatility throughout the campaign.

Regardless who's to blame; when picking up a new rulebook, I just find myself reading the character creation section, then the gameplay section (because I read the book in the order it's written), then the character creation section again because I'll have better clarity in how the stats are used.

... Anyway; that was probably a bit of a tangent ...

For Dead Earth Gods I'm considering a gameplay chapter, with character-focussed examples of play throughout, to describe to readers how different areas of the game will work. Then the character creation section will follow, with the rationale for this being that the reader will be able to make a more educated decision about the choices they need to make once skimming the rules. This could possibly soften the issue that I encounter when creating a new character for a game – kicking myself for creating a character that I think should fit my roleplaying plans, rather than one that does.