With something like a reaction or phase change, all sources use the criterion that $dG < 0$ for the reaction to be spontaneous and then substitute an appropriate expression for $dG$ to the specific application. For phase change my book stats $(\mu'-\mu'')dn' < 0$ where $'$ is phase A and $''$ is phase B, $\mu$ is the chemical potential and $dn' > 0$ means gaining of molecules in phase A.
However, reactions require activation energy and phase change require nucleation (I think this is kind of like an activation energy); both of these processes require an increase in $G$ before a larger decrease. Why do we not use $\Delta G$ (between initial and final equilibrium states) instead?
Edit:
I am confused by the use of dG (a rate differential) as opposed to $\Delta G$ (a net change between end states) because I'm not sure how one would integrate this for say, a phase change, since it must pass through a potential barrier where G must increase. Is the integral just $G_2-G_1$ between the end states and thermodynamically the process ignores the barrier (since thermodynamics deals with equilibrium only)? A typical thermodynamic process I'm imagining is quasistatic compression, where we can get work from the integral of PdV and P is defined as it goes through an infinite number of equilibrium states; I'm not sure if it's possible to draw a parallel here for free energy and phase change/reacting systems.
Edit 2:
From this graph it looks like G increases then decreases to stable equilibrium after phase change. If we find dG/dr from this graph and integrate dG(r), should we get the same $\Delta G$ as from thermodynamics (before and after phase equilibrium)? If so, this seems to me like finding work of a rapid piston-cylinder compression of an insulated system; PdV is undefined since we are not passing through a set of equilibrium states but we can still find work from $\Delta U$. Difference is that in this case, our initial state is technically not in equilibrium/stable since the system favours a phase change, so we are beginning from a state that technically does not exist on the phase diagram (like if we have a supercooled/superheated liquid).