Except palette rule 6 state that evolution ( the biological process) is freakingly fast due to magic. 
1. I didn't read that well. That's...kinda silly. What kind of cataclysm would reduce life to bacteria, and if it goes through billions of years of evolution in a few centuries, that's a bit over 15 million years per year, so each generation of
rodents would be about the "distance" between the Rupelian and today. Human generations would cover roughly the entire time complex life has existed on Earth. Different subspecies than the parent? Heck, the kids could be different
genera from the parents! Plus, unless we're directing evolution somehow, speeding it up doesn't work well. You would have to increase mutation rates in general, which would cause a large increase in things like birth defects, early death, cancer, and so on. Not to mention that it is
completely unneeded, given the number of possible cataclysms which would only destroy civilizations while leaving most life intact, especially if we add in a little divine intervention.
In other words, it tries to remove to need for a creator re-making the entire world every cycle by adding an even weirder bit of magic to try and handwave it. Ugh. I think I'm just going to pretend the first few centuries of each cycle don't exist. Depending on how major this is...ugh.
2. Development involves technological and infrastructure improvement. Evolution involves biological change. The two are unrelated.
