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Stored energy can just stay there till it leaks away as you suggested. When it does leak away it's not being used to apply the force, it's just wasted as heat
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My point was simply that the rate of dissipation of energy is greater when the spring is "trying" to do work, even if it is not succeeding within the meaning of the work function. Is this something that can just be ignored in order to make fact fit theory?

There never was nothing.