Great to see you here @Faithdefender and great question. Let us be clear about a few things.
First off there are different types of appearance of age, which we can call:
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Created mature or ready for a function, which might appear like age to us.
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The appearance of a false history, which also might like age to us.
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The appearance of false history, unrelated to maturity or function, that is inconsistent with a global flood, which also might look like age to us.
Each of these cases might need to be thought about differently. In some cases, it might make God out to a be deceptive, but this depends on the theological details of what is being claimed.
Most people should agree that the deceptive God objection (DGO) doesn’t apply to the case #1. Case #2 most people think DGO applies, but I’m not sure. Case #3 is a large problem however because DGO does certainly seem to apply. For Lake Varves, Volcanic Ash, and the Great Isaiah Scroll, there is no good reason I’ve heard or could imagine that could explain why God would create evidence that miraculously survives a global flood to demonstrate an ancient earth.
We also call it art. It is common to make things for artistic purposes that appear older than they really are, and this is not considered deceptive.