Take one bar magnetic that clearly has marked on it north and south and then put a compass next to it. Compass will point towards south pole of magnet. It is designed to follow magnetic lines of flux. But it's markings will tell you it is pointing "north".
The neutral is tied to earth at the star point of the berm transformer and at every installation on the multiple earth neutral system. It is there to carry the out of balance current in a star connected system. It does not have potential with respect to earth. The oomph that you suggest comes from disconnection of a neutral that is carrying return load current and in cases of main neutral into a house the oomph is from the backfeed of the street.
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