[[Thermodynamics cannot be used to argue that life devolves or dies due to degradation of the genome.]]
As pointed out- the FACT that these long-lived species shed broken down systems and genetics refutes your statement. It is irrelevent that they gain new codes through splitting, as the old discarded code most certainly WAS bound to hte second law. Everythign living that we know of is bound the second law- it doesn’t matter that some species vary in how long they can live- the fact is that htey are still bound to hte second law as proven out by hte fact that they MUST aquire copies to replace the dying code.
Some do and some don't. Amoebas have a genome many times the size of the human genome. There are bacteria having essentially zero non-coding genetic material. Mitochondria have genetic material that is very resistant to change.
It is simply counterfactual to assert that living things devolve due to entropy.