Question

A—The Ari asked why the world was not created earlier than the time at which it was created, and answered that it was not possible for this world to be created before the higher worlds had expanded and emanated downward, and as soon as they had emanated, this world was created. First of all, does this make philosophical sense? And second, isn’t this somewhat heretical, in that it places some kind of limitation on Him—that He could not create them earlier than when He created them?
B—Also, is the kabbalists’ refusal to accept creation ex nihilo in its plain sense—for example, the view of Azriel the Kabbalist, a student of Isaac the Blind, in his commentary on Song of Songs (which was mistakenly attributed to Nachmanides, who said exactly the opposite in his homily Torat Hashem Temimah), where he says that the truth is like Plato’s view, that there was primordial hyle/matter because the Creator cannot create something from nothing—isn’t that against our faith, or at least an excessive limitation on the Creator?
C—Likewise, Rabbi Chaim Vital’s suggestion that He emanated and created everything from Himself, because everything was included within Him like a flame within a glowing coal—and the Ya’avetz in Mitpachat Sefarim explains their view as being that absolute creation from nothing is not really applicable—doesn’t that run against our faith, and isn’t it an excessive limitation on the Creator?
(If you want, I can bring quotations; I just didn’t want this to get too wordy.)
Thank you