there's actually an easier and faster way to do this:

1. once you reach W4 in a run, immediately go for the lost item
2. after retrieving it, turn around and turn it in for a star
3. keep backtracking and go into the pipe you pass by to get here
4. complete that entire segment, collect the star in there, and walk off the world's starting platform

if you do every step correctly, it should work, and you'll have three total earned stars in the process :) unless it's somehow different for 33 stars, but i couldn't possibly imagine why

i thought ddww was set up before a 33 star run, but thanks for letting me know lol

yeye i'm not sure if it exactly falls under this, but i think somewhere in the rules it states that you can't set up glitches before a run either

It is against the rules, yes