As for the last question, there is a difference between whether a reaction releases energy and whether an action is *spontaneous*. If you imagine a ball on a table, the ball has the potential to release energy when it falls, and may be a bit unstable. But the ball will not *spontaneously* fall. An intervention is required to get it to the lower energy state.
The universe doesn’t “know” that the ball falling is the better energy state. It knows that, in order to fall, the ball *needs* a bit of energy (in the form of a push) and the ball does not have that energy right now. There is a little energy barrier to get the ball to release energy, so it doesn’t.
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