"anyone that simply observes a sunset, will know that the act of refraction also causes some randomization of the image"

The sun is a close star that can be visibly distorted by refraction.

As for the stars, them being faraway small faint objects, maybe there is not much left of them to be visibly distorted by the refraction?

As there been any microscopic studies made on images of stars taken near an eclipse of the sun to see if there is not effectively a "randomization of the image"?