Querying WordPress with SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS

So, I’ve recently taken on a job making changes to the WordPress theme for arena . govspace . gov . au and I’ve been asked to look into why posts posted on the same day do not appear in order according to the time they were posted.

Now, the way the content is pulled in is not the way I am used to doing it in WordPress. I would normally use a WP_Query, so the examples below are a little out of my wheelhouse.

This function is responsible querying for the output for this page: https://arena.govspace.gov.au/news-media/media-releases/

function SQLQueryPost( $post_type,$meta_key,&$paged,&$rows,&$total_row, $limit_query = "limit 10"){
    $paged = (get_query_var('paged')) ? get_query_var('paged') : 1;

    global $wpdb;

    $test = $wpdb->posts;

    $sql = 'SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS meta_value, id, post_title 
            FROM '.$wpdb->posts.' join '.$wpdb->postmeta.' on '.$wpdb->posts.'.id = '.$wpdb->postmeta.'.post_id 
            WHERE 
            meta_value != "" and meta_key = "'.$meta_key.'"
            and post_status = "publish"
            and post_type = "'.$post_type.'"
            order by STR_TO_DATE( meta_value, "%d-%m-%Y") DESC
            '.$limit_query.' offset '.($paged - 1 )*10;

    $rows = $wpdb->get_results($sql);

    $total_row = $wpdb->get_var( "SELECT found_rows();" );

}

For this query, I simply changed the line order by STR_TO_DATE( meta_value, "%d-%m-%Y") DESC to order by post_date DESC and magically it now orders them by date and time.

This function is responsible for pulling more than one content type for this page: https://arena.govspace.gov.au/news-media/

function SQLQueryPostMulti( $post_types,$meta_key,&$paged,&$rows,&$total_row, $limit_query = "limit 10"){
    $paged = (get_query_var('paged')) ? get_query_var('paged') : 1;

    global $wpdb;

    $test = $wpdb->posts;

    $sql = 'SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS meta_value, id, post_title, post_type 
            FROM '.$wpdb->posts.' join '.$wpdb->postmeta.' on '.$wpdb->posts.'.id = '.$wpdb->postmeta.'.post_id 
            WHERE 
            meta_value != ""
            and post_status = "publish"
            and post_type IN (' . $post_types . ')
            order by STR_TO_DATE( meta_value, "%d-%m-%Y") DESC
            '.$limit_query.' offset '.($paged - 1 )*10;

    $rows = $wpdb->get_results($sql);

    $total_row = $wpdb->get_var( "SELECT found_rows();" );
}

This query seems to be a little trickier. I attempted the same change (order by STR_TO_DATE( meta_value, "%d-%m-%Y") DESC to order by post_date DESC) but in this case the page returns the exact same entry for all 10 results.

Basically, if anyone could provide any kind of insight as to how I can make this query not only order the posts by day, but to also order them by time posted on that day, I would be extremely grateful.