I would have expected they'd do something like a brunch shortly after take-off, and then a lighter meal further into the flight.

I'm having trouble remembering whether I've been on flights with a similar meal combination offered. I feel like the late-morning departure of the BA246 back when it served GRU from EZE had something called a brunch (and I remember it being pretty decent). This was quite a short flight, and then the continuing service from GRU served a rather early full dinner based on the fact that it would be the last meal before a breakfast on arrival in LHR.

I also think BA1 might have had a brunch quite awhile back, but then they were also in the tricky predicament of potentially leaving LHR after breakfast, but arriving JFK in time for breakfast again...

Still, strangest time-inappropriate meal I had recently was the BA245 LHR to EZE, which of course is normally quite an ordinary dinner + breakfast. When it gets delayed until 15:00 the next day (as it was for me), then the dinner after take-off is still quite reasonable, but being served breakfast prior to a just-after-midnight arrival in EZE (and it being still before dawn in UK) had some of the crew even struggling to keep a straight face as they offered "breakfast."