In principle, the preferred library members will be selected and amplified based on the strongest interactions between the template and products.
Laboratory processes are mostly designed such that the (closed) system goes thermodynamically downhill; i.e. the product state is of lower Gibbs free energy, yielding stable molecules that can be isolated and stored.
Yet the chemistry of life operates in a very different way: most molecules from which living systems are constituted are turned over continuously and are not necessarily thermodynamically stable.
One of the grand challenges of Systems Chemistry is to unveil complex reactions networks, where molecules continuously consume energy to perform specific functions.
A 2017 review in the field of systems chemistry[9] described the state of the art as out-of-equilibrium self-assembly, fuelled molecular motion, chemical networks in compartments and oscillating reactions.