I feel like you're being overly charitable to laptop manufacturers. If such manufacturers always considered the thermal limits of their products when advertising their performance, then I don't think many people would complain.

Since that isn't the case, however, many people get a laptop that isn't capable of performing the tasks it's advertised for. The excuse of "well, we didn't think you'd really need that much power" doesn't really cut it, when said power was strongly advertised on the box.