Kiesling

I'm in the same boat.

"...everyone's utility in a given round ... is the negative of the average temperature." Why would we assume that?

"Clearly, this is feasible, because it's happening." Is this rational? Isn't this synonymous with saying "clearly my scenario makes sense because my scenario says so"?

"Each prisoner's min-max payoff is -99.3" If everyone else is min-maxing against any given individual, you would have a higher payoff if you set your dial to 0, no?  The worst total payoff would be -99.

What am I missing? Can anyone bridge this specific gap for me?

I completely agree.  I think, though, what alkjash is driving at is that very metric has become abused or misused altogether.  Sometimes worthwhile things really do hurt.  However, the pain which resulted for the achievement is not the same as how effective the effort was; the pain, rather, was a byproduct.  And there is truly something potent, and inspiring, to be able to make necessary sacrifices and push through pain.  But to confuse the efficacious with the sacrificial is to weaponize the pain rather than the procedure.