Any ideas how to exclude a "Featured" post?

I want to use the query to grab everything except for "Featured" in the second args query, and for the "Featured" post to be the first item listed. Right now "Featured" is duplicating. The first Featured post link is correct, but need to get rid of the second Featured post link.

Here is a screenshot:

enter image description here

Here is the code:

<?php
function exclude_term_by( $taxonomy = 'category', $args = [], $exclude = [] )
{
    /**
     * If there are no term slugs to exclude or if $exclude is not a valid array, return get_terms
     */
    if ( empty( $exclude ) || !is_array( $exclude ) )
        return get_terms( $taxonomy, $args );

    /**
     * If we reach this point, then we have terms to exclude by slug
     * Simply continue the process. 
     */ 
    foreach ( $exclude as $value ) {

            /**
             * Use get_term_by to get the term ID and add ID's to an array
             */
            $term_objects = get_term_by( 'slug', $value, $taxonomy );
            $term_ids[] = (int) get_queried_object()->term_id;

    }

    /**
     * Set up the exclude parameter with an array of ids from $term_ids
     */
    $excluded_ids = [
        'exclude' => $term_ids
    ];

    /**
     * Merge the user passed arguments $args with the excluded terms $excluded_ids
     * If any value is passed to $args['exclude'], it will be ignored
     */
    $merged_arguments = array_merge( $args, $excluded_ids );

    /**
     * Lets pass everything to get_terms
     */
    $terms = get_terms( $taxonomy, $merged_arguments ); 

    /**
     * Return the results from get_terms
     */
    return $terms;
}
$terms = exclude_term_by( 'category', [], ['featured', 'corporate'] );
if ( !empty( $terms ) && !is_wp_error( $terms ) ) {
    ?>
    <div class="category-filter full">
        <span class="filter-text"><i class="far fa-filter"></i> <?php esc_html_e( 'Filter by:', 'siemens-wp' ); ?></span>
        <ul class="category-list">
            <?php 
            // only display "Featured" if a Featured post is present in the blog
                $query = new WP_Query(array(
                    'post_type' => 'post',
                    'field' => 'slug',
                    'category_name' => 'featured',
                    'ignore_sticky_posts'    => 1,
                ));
                // This is intentional for the "Featured" post to be the first item
                if( $query->have_posts() ){
                    echo '<li><a href="'. get_site_url() .'/category/featured/">Featured</a></li>';
                }
            wp_reset_postdata(); // Restore original Post Data
            ?>
            <?php
                $args = array(
                    'post_type'    => 'posts',
                    'showposts'    => -1,
                    'post_status'  => 'publish',
                    'parent' => 0,
                    'hide_empty' => true,
                    'tax_query' => array(
                        'taxonomy' => 'categories',
                        'field'    => 'slug',
                        'terms'    => array( 'featured' ), 
                        'operator' => 'NOT IN',
                    ),
                );
                $terms = get_terms('categories', $args );
                foreach ( $terms as $term ) :
                    // This output does not work
                    printf( '<li><a href="%1$s">%2$s</a></li>',
                        esc_url( get_category_link( $term->term_id ) ),
                        esc_html( $term->name )
                    );
                endforeach; 
            ?>
        </ul>
    </div>
    <div class="category-filter mobile">
        <select id="custom-select" onchange="location = this.value;" style="outline:none;border:1px solid #777;font-size:20px;height:30px;color:#777;">
                <option value="" disabled selected hidden>Filter by Category</option>
            <?php 
                foreach ( $terms as $term ) {
                    printf( '<option value="%1$s">%2$s</option>',
                        esc_url( get_category_link( $term->term_id ) ),
                        esc_html( $term->name )
                    );
                }
            ?>
        </select>
    </div>
     <?php
     wp_reset_postdata();
}   
?>

Any ideas on what the output would be in the foreach loop?

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