So if the primates have free will, and one ape had one mutation and another ape had another mutation did they have the free will to choose to sleep together and have offspring that carried both genetic possibilities for both mutations? Or were they put in a trance to have sex and get pregnant and have offspring?
Then did that offspring live a life of making choices? Like did it have the ability to choose to not go as far out into a field and get caught and eaten or was it just somehow always protected to ensure it would not be killed before it was able to grow up and mate and have offspring of it own?
Okay, now you are getting into territory that varies from denomination to denomination.
Some Christians aren’t comfortable with the idea that non-human animals have free will. While other groups don’t have a problem with that.
So let’s assume the latter position!
God plans the specific mutations, KNOWING how the individuals with Free Will are going to respond to the mutations.
And if you reverse the analysis, you can see how free will and mutations are different topics:
(1) A female human (or, instead, a non-human primate) exercise their free will and choose to make with someone tall and not so hairy. How does this freedom make God’s micro-managing of mutations any less relevant?
These are two separate realms of operation: which genes are presented in each generation vs. what an individual with Free Will chooses to do with these God-managed presentations.