A question about the intersection of evolution and thermodynamics
Getting long for a comment

I can only comment that evolution does not proceed towards thermodynamic optimum. Adaptation is thermodynamic optimization but evolution is directionless. Otherwise the extant species would not suffer from tradeoffs (which they have even in their usual habitat). Establishment of a self replicating cell may be thermodynamically driven and given the conditions, irreversible; macroscopic evolution is like die roll where some states are randomly⁺ selected and eliminated.

⁺Not really random but a complex non-linear function which seems unpredictable

You can imagine a chamber with particles exhibiting brownian motion. Assume that particles have a random size distribution (lets say they are crystals of different topologies). Now if you keep a separator with few holes wide enough for a just one particle of a given size to pass. Then you'll end up getting only few particles of a narrower size distribution on the other side. This no way ensures that these were the most thermodynamically stable particles.