On a side note, I will take a cold shower after workouts and it extends my feeling of ‘magnificence’ and the ‘I worked out today’ sensations.
Example, I have a very destroyed shoulder from a break and dislocation. The cold helps way more with its recovery from exercises that put it through the wringer.
The perfect world is finding a way to get it better but I don’t have the answers (and nor has science/medicine) but from my own experiments my shoulder will respond dramatically better to cold than not.
I also have some Red Light therapy available. Less good.
The best is anti-inflammatories but the significant downside outweighs the ups.
So in a world of compromises I benefit the most from cold exposure.
The other thing is, this my make a a significant enough difference in elite athletes, but for the average person I thing doing it at all is far superior to doing it at the right time but much less often.