It's been some time since I've been into thermodynamics. So I really couldn't follow your logic. These days, I'm a high school educator--and theromdynamics is not that important at that level of science.

But your article was interesting to me in that we do get into a rut of how to explain things. So we need different ways of explaining

For example, all my physics textbooks tend to treat charges (and later electricity) as some kind of magic that we just apply the principles to (like charges repel and unlike charges attract). And that explanation can still earn a good mark in physics.

I eventually explained charges as "An object with a surplus or shortage of electrons." A nice simple sentence--that leads nicely into how electricity really works. For some reason, the physics textbooks like to keep charges more mysterious.