> using the Framework feels like using an older Intel based Mac

Your memory served you wrong. Experience eith Intel based Macs was much worse than recent AMD chips.

Agree. My 2017 MBP cooked its own battery (spicy pillow) by 2021.

My 2019 Thinkpad T495 (Ryzen 3600) does get hot under load, but it's still fine to type on.

Yep, but only because of Apples terrible design. Take those same chips and put them in a machine with proper cooling and they fly. Its frustrating when Apple fans always blame that situation on intel, when in reality Apple messed up the design bad. Its almost like they purposely designed the last generation of intel macs to run hot and throttle just so people had bad memories of them after upgrading to Apple silicon.