The humans aren't being random. They're using numbers from sources in real life. A large fraction of the data points are years from the twentieth century as 1

The humans aren't being random. They're using numbers from sources in real life. A large fraction of the data points are years from the twentieth century as 19xx and a smaller fraction as 200x. MMDD or DDMM format dates also follow the Law in tending to lead with digits 0-3. Or consider the 2580 case or other patterns on the keypad, where the leading digit will skew towards the beginning of the digit-alphabet. So Benford's Law will apply even on a data set that has no numerical meaning in itself, transitively from the real sources of the numbers.