i haven't read all the posts, yet. still working at it. however, i have point to make, which may be made in posts i have yet to read, but i think it worth stating.
wind and water can be used to power objects or to create power. and i think these are two really good examples to use because, like magnetic energy, we only had a limited understanding of how to harness these forces, in the early days.
i am a sailor. i have a really good uderstanding of these two particular forces. in the early days, sailing barges n the nile, wind force was understood much as some of the posts, i have read, understand magnetism. it was seen as a push, in the direction of the wind, but had to be opposed to go the other direction. so, they used square sails mounted forwards on their barges to sail against the river's current. this use of the wind only makes use of drag. then, they would use the rivers current to push their barges in the other direction. also using the force of drag.
the germanic tribes of the late migration age, noteably the vikings ( possibly others but the physical proof positive is stll not completely solidified yet ), were the fist to use sail design and balance, coupled with hull design, to use the power of wind and water in a different way, and truley sail upwind.
modern sailboats use these same priciples. sailing wind, the sail creates lift. lift pulls the boat upwind. but, it's not perfect and, without the opposing lift created by the keel/fin/underwater foil, the boat would be blown sideways.
however, by coupling the opposing lift forces of the wter and wind, forwards motion is created allowing the sailboat to move in opposition to the wind. not directly, of course. you can only sail to within 30 to 45 degrees of the wind. but you can sail up wind. yet, in the early days, wind and water were only seen as forces that could create power in one direction and had to be opposed in the other direction.
i see the understanding of magnetic force being looked at in this way. it is only useful in one direction then it has to be opposed. this is an antagonistc view of the forces of nature. the forces of nature, including magnetism, can, and will, be made to work for man, fully, when man stops viewing them as things to oppose and, instead, seeks harmony with them.
i think that martial arts is a good analogy of the kind of thought needed. in a movie, when two knights bring their swords together, in a fight, they push against each other, trying to force the other person's sword aside. this is a silly convention of TV land and real longsword combat does not work like that. if i strike to you with my longsword, and you try to push it aside, i will not waste my time and energy resisting you. i do what's called a change through. i use your energy against you and allow you to power my sword so that it moves to the opposite side of your sword ( where i thrust you tgrough ) and carries your sword off line. we call that opposing strength with weakness. we also oppose weakness with strength. it's not much different than the thinking that allowed man to figure ut how to sail up wind.
right now, you are viewing magnetism as opposing strength with strength. so, it works one way and has to be forced to a place to allow it to work in that exact same way, again. at least, these early posts are viewing it that way.
a magnet does not only push, it repells. it has the potential to work in both directions. realize that and work to find a way to utilize the dual nature of this force and you can create a self perpetuating cycle.
just my two cents.
one other point. springs are not a good analogy of magnets. magnets have a flow of force around them, moving between the poles. a spring is a piece of metal. by itself, it has no force. the metal is tempered in such a way that the molecular structure allows it to be deflected from it's original form but it has a memory of that form and returns to that form, once it is realesed from it's point of deflection. the force of motion, energy, of the spring, does not originate with the spring. it comes from, for instance, the finders used to squeeze it together. it takes a certain amount of energy to deform the metal. once released, the metal returns to it's original form, releasing the 'stored energy' imparted to it by the fingers. however, you could plsce a million springs on a table, together, and nothing at all would happen. you'd just have a bunch of pieces of metal lying on the table. dump a bunch of magnets on the table and see what happens. they possess force. springs do not.
using springs to describe magnets is like using balls to describe oranges. yes they have the same shape. they can even have the same color. however, balls are good to hit with a bat and oranges taste good. hitting an orange with a bat will never get you a home run and i'm not going to try to eat a baseball.