Ancient culture viewed the sun and moon as parents of the stars. Has this any significance for Genesis 22:17?

This text is from a letter written by David Gooding in 1999.

It may be true that, in the culture of the time, the sun and moon were considered the parents of the stars; but I do not think that is the view presented in Genesis 1:14–19, nor anywhere else in the Old Testament as far as I know. I would not myself therefore be inclined to base anything on this cultural idea.

The uncountability of Abraham's seed is likened in Genesis 22:17 both to the stars and the sand on the seashore. In the time of Abraham, only about three thousand stars were visible to the naked eye, and three thousand are very easily counted. At first sight, therefore, there seems to be a very marked difference between the two similes used; that is, stars and sand. There are far more than three thousand grains of sand on the seashore. We now know, of course, that the stars and the great galaxies of stars in our universe are just as uncountable, and more so, than the grains of sand on the seashore.

Some people have felt that, in using the two analogies here—stars and sand, God was wanting to refer by the stars to Abraham's spiritual seed, and by the sand to his physical seed. I personally think that this might be pressing the analogy too far.