Many people are tying their shoes with slipped granny knot. There was a ted talk with some geezer teaching people to turn the bows in the opposite direction. But it’s way simpler to learn to twist the laces in the first knot opposite and then you get the square knot. You can easily tell the difference by the direction of the bows. Square has bows perpendicular to the shoe, Granny twists the bows more parallel to the shoe.

A knot is not just the end result though, it's also how you tie it.

That is incorrect. The final position is what determines that knot. There can be many ways to get there, but they are all considered one knot.

Search for how to tie alpine butterfly for an example of a knot that are many ways to tie, but all are considered the same knot.