Something being indistingishable from magic does not actually make it magic. So the aliens starting the universe, while indistinguishable from magic, does not actually make it magic.
Of course!
That's the point of Clarke's Third Law.
The Cargo Cult folks immediately after WWII in the Pacific used imitative magic to try to get the cargo to return. It didn't of course.
But that is another good example of Clarke's Third Law.
And I guess this is another good example of a well-reasoned but off-topic post, eh?