I think part of the problem with explaining time is that we still model it narratively. That of the point of the the present moving past to future, even if it is codified as measures of duration and treated as a geometric extension.

Change turns future to past. As in tomorrow becomes yesterday, because the earth turns. Potential, actual, residual.

Duration is this physical presence, of the “conserved” energy, as events coalesce and dissolve.

There is no physical dimension of time, because the past is consumed by the present, in order to inform it, aka, causality and conservation of energy.

The energy is conserved, because there is no physical past for it to recede into, or physical future from which it arrives, as it is the changing configuration of this energy which creates the effect of change/time.

That different events can be observed in different order, from different locations is no more consequential than seeing the moon as it was a moment ago, simultaneous with seeing stars as they were years ago. It’s the energy being conserved, not the information it manifests, since it is the changing information which is time. Entropy is not being measured and is a second order effect, like thermodynamics out of temperature and pressure.

Time is asymmetric because what is being measured, action, is inertial. The earth turns one direction, not both.

So time is an effect, like temperature, pressure, color, etc.

We could use ideal gas laws to correlate volume with temperature and pressure, but they are only foundational to our emotions, bodily functions and environment, not the sequencing of thought, that is a function of our being mobile organisms, needing to navigate. Then narrating our journeys and building civilizations out of the collective knowledge.

The left, logical, linear hemisphere of the brain is analogous to a clock/ruler, while the right emotional, intuitive side is to a thermostat/barometer.