Entropy increase need not be chaotic. Stars generate entropy at a very reliable rate. We also do not know what a maximum rate, and I didn't state life was anything like a maximum rate, just faster than non-life in some circumstances.

But we don't know, or even think, that the rules of nature prefer a rate of entropy increase. We just know that it does increase, on average, in closed systems. If life as we know it creates entropy at a high rate compared to other natural processes, that is not a reason for life to be compulsory, or even preferred, by nature.