Currently, timers for both Research and Buildings are calculated at the start, this means you can min-max with some elements like Phylactery to optimize times (or cost). This may or may not change in the future.
I am not sure where the Max Button looks best for this, it did look weird when centered, but can't remember why, I'll have another look at it and make sure it's consistent.
Build All excludes Storages by default, you can disable this behavior in the settings.