how can a nothing condition with the potential to unleash the energy/mass/ spacetime of our universe have been nothing?
Who is to say that nothing ever existed in a total form? Nobody! We need first determine what/whether total absence of something or anything for that matter is even possible. In terms of what a modern human might be able to imagine with out a critical thinking who knows what we might come up with and the variable possiblities. I think that is why quantum mechanics is counter intuitive Ultimate Reality doesn't match up with perceived reality with the senses which can be mistaken for the ultimate.