How does an irreversible process maintain internal energy while dissipating excess heat?
The change in entropy of the system in both cases is the same, but, in the irreversible case, the entropy of the surroundings decreased less.  This is because less heat was transferred from the surroundings to the system.  In this sense, all the entropy generated within the system in the irreversible process is transferred to the surroundings.  So the interpretation would be that the &quot;heat generated&quot; within the system causes less heat to be transferred from the surrounding to the system and less work to be done.  In my judgment, this is a desperate attempt to provide some physical interpretation to what is happening.