If Genesis 1 and 2 are “fully sequential” then where exactly does it say that Adam was “created in the image of God.”?
I agree that 9:6 lends support to the idea that the right to life comes in part from the fact that God originally created the man in His own image (it says “ha-adam” there). That is, this was the original state of the man. And it is God’s intent for mankind, which is present reality in heaven and working its way out on earth. Not that this is the exclusive scriptural basis for our rights. Again I refer to John Locke who may have used 9:6 but did not rely on it even primarily to make his case for human rights coming from God. This verse goes further than expressing rights in that it demands an accounting when those rights are violated.
But my main point is that 1) a sequential reading is not essential to see a population inside the garden and outside the garden in chapters one and two and 2) If the chapters are strictly sequential then there is no textual support for the idea that the man in chapter two was even created (just formed and made as @Guy_Coe has pointed out), much less created in the image of God. Yet from 9:6 there seems to be a connection between Adam’s descendants (Noah and His sons) and the creation of the Man in chapter one.
Hence I conclude that the chapters are not fully sequential though they do indicate a population outside the garden and then Adam (and Eve) inside it.