"The "circular dependence" dissolves when you remove the assumption of a starting point." Saying there is no starting point doesn’t actually resolve the circular dependence—it just pushes the problem into an infinite regress without explaining it. Karma requires an agent, intention, and a body to act, so without an initial embodied state, the accumulation of pāpa and puṇya itself becomes logically impossible. If differences in birth are explained by prior karma, then the very first differentiation remains unexplained, because you are still relying on an endless chain with no foundation. An infinite cycle may avoid a beginning, but it still needs an explanation for why such a system exists at all; otherwise, it is not a true explanation but just an assumption stretched infinitely.