Thank you for pointing me to the video and the right minute where she goes to the point. Seeing that a classic enthusiastic holdish physics teacher haves 1.5M subscribers and her video on such a niche yet fundamental topic haves 1.1 views gives me years of life.

I fully agree with her, that's exactly the way I see it. "Thermal death" is the point where such new complex systems will emerge, and for every new system entropy "starts at zero" in the exact same physical sense and rigour in that every time a column of water decreases, that new level is the new "zero". I have that coupled as part of the reasoning (together with some other stuff I'm working on) that haves lead to the image I posted in my bio: