You never turned the oven temperature dial from the "OFF" position until the match was burning.

Adding a pilot light permitted gas oven burners to cycle on and off instead of just up and down and thus provide keep warm temperatures as low as 140F whereas with the modulating flame, the lowest temperatures were in the 170 to 200F range. Gas range manufacturers made a big deal of this in advertising in the mid to late 60s with the new 140F keep warm setting that allowed roasts to be held at "rare" without going to "medium" over a long holding period.

I lived in a place with a Western Holly oven where the gas valve did not modulate fully and after scorching the edges of a cake, I used an oven thermometer and turned the thermostat down, much like a surface burner to where the flame was low enough to hold the temperature I wanted. Modulating thermostats were not foolproof and could develop quirks with age.