Upload to iCloud Photos without adding to Recents album?
It's true that the Recents album does show imported photos first, regardless of when those photos were originally taken. I'm always slightly annoyed by this when I import an older SD Card from my camera.

Try to ignore the Recents album.

Instead, use the Photos tab section in the main view. These photos are arranged by date.

In iOS 13, they are given a nice Years / Months / Days view to quickly zoom in to times and events.