Oh believe me, I did. I did just about everything I could think of to cool my laptop (I had an nvme cooling pad in there, a shortcut to temporarily turn my fans

Oh believe me, I did. I did just about everything I could think of to cool my laptop (I had an nvme cooling pad in there, a shortcut to temporarily turn my fans up when the temps got a bit high, I even took a dremel to my laptop stand so it could get more air in and out, and of course as you mention the TDP settings). Either these measures were all taken too late (~6 months into owning it, though I had a stand and the nvme cooler from day 1), or they merely extended its life. It has been a hot summer here, and UK houses are built specifically to trap heat, plus I have another which generates a bit of heat a few metres from it for work, so I am in a fairly hot room, but the thinkpad is in the very same room, without any of the cooling measures taken (I usually use it in bed, the bane of a laptops cooler) and as I say, its still chugging along. Not saying its impossible to have a well built, well cooled gaming laptop, but in my experience, they're not the go to for reliability