Hand-waving is not required as one is not going into microfoundations at all in the original argument. Someone making a thermodynamic argument for some conclusi

Hand-waving is not required as one is not going into microfoundations at all in the original argument. Someone making a thermodynamic argument for some conclusion, can later on try to speculate about how the conclusion is implemented with statistical mechanics. But the original argument is itself independent. Similarly, Penrose speculates about Orch-OR(which is not dualism btw, Penrose is a physicalist), but the truth of the argument isn't dependent on Orch-OR itself.