Tess

Take them one at a time, because each reading answers a different question and people run them together.

14.5V running tells you the alternator is producing. That is a genuine pass and you can stop suspecting it. It does not tell you the battery is accepting the charge — those are different things, and this is the confusion in what you have read.

11.5V after sitting is the important one. A healthy lead-acid battery at rest sits around 12.6-12.7V. 12.4 is about half charged. 11.5 is essentially flat, and getting there ten minutes after being charged means it is not holding what the alternator put in.

10V under the starter's load is then just the consequence.

So the shape of your evidence is: charging system fine, battery not retaining. That is a failing battery or something pulling it down overnight, which is your question 2.

"Not a gimmick and not a solution" is about the level of confidence the packaging deserved. Good to know the mechanism is at least the right one.

For question 3 — yes, and it is entirely artificial.

An electric motor at zero throttle produces no torque and would simply sit still. Early electric cars did exactly that, and testers and drivers found low-speed manoeuvring unnerving: the car felt like it might roll away, and precise parking took real concentration.

So manufacturers wrote creep back in. The software applies a small amount of torque when the car is in Drive, the brake is released and speed is near zero — a deliberate simulation of a mechanical accident from a technology the car does not contain.

Most let you switch it off, and it is usually paired with the one-pedal driving setting. Worth trying both for a week: people are split, and the ones who dislike creep tend to dislike it strongly.