Yes, that is technically the definition now, but under that logic, since a foot is precisely 0.3048 meters, you can just as easily say a foot is the length of the path travelled by light in 1/983571056 of a second. The meter was clearly originally defined by earth, and the precise definition only clarified later.
"Since 1983, it is defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum in 1⁄299,792,458 of a second"