Did I interpret the interaction of より and 前 correctly?

Question

The following is an excerpt from an explanation by my language partner about the difference between "simple past" 送りました and 送っておきました。 She discussed a situation where she first sent me new-years stickers on Skype before sending me another message on italki where she talked about her sending the stickers on Skype before sending the message on italki with a 送っておきました construction.

「送りました」 の場合、過去形になっているので、メッセージを書くよりも前に送ったことになりますが、メッセージとの関係は示されていません。

I think that よりも前に means something along the lines of "from before", although I don't really know what this も does here. My attempt at translation:

In case of '送りました', because it is past form, even though it takes the meaning of having it (=the Skype stickers) sent from before writing the message, it doesn't demonstrate the relationship with the message.

Answer 1

メッセージを書くよりも前に送ったことになりますが、

The 「よりも前に」 means "before" or "earlier than".　(より means "than", and 前に means "earlier".)

You can rephrase the sentence without changing the meaning:

メッセージを書くより前に送ったことになりますが、
メッセージを書く前に送ったことになりますが、

"although it would mean that (I) sent it before writing the message, ..."

_{「より前に」 sounds more explicit than just 「前に」, and 「よりも前に」 sounds a bit more emphatic than 「より前に」/「前に」.}

As for the も:

よりも〘連語〙⇒ より（格助詞）
（明鏡国語辞典）

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_{Sidenote: You can't replace より(も)前に with 前に when it follows a noun, e.g.}

_{「山田さんより(も)前に着いた。」（×山田さん前に着いた。）
"I arrived before Yamada-san. / I arrived earlier than Yamada-san."}

Answer 2

The function of 「よりも」 in this case would indicate a meaning of 'more than', or 'even more ____ '.

The use of も to mean 'even' is demonstrated below:

Aをしても　Even if I do A.

Aでもない　Not even A.

それよりも, A.　Even more than that, A. /// Rather than that, A.

My interpretation of what your language partner was saying would be:

As regards my use of 「送りました」, as it is in the past-tense form, I was indicating that I sent them (the stickers) EVEN before composing a message, not referencing the actual message.