a) The use of "hunger as an emotional state" is sort of a 'model artifact." "My grandma died" is not an emotional state, but it induces one. perhaps calling hunger an 'emotional state' is akin to saying "my grandma died is an emotional state" - it's wrong, but they can both produce emotional outcomes.
Maybe for you the impact of being hungry is weak. I've found myself that being hungry or tired makes the whole world seem darker, gloomy, and less ... doable. It unraveling this thread helped me realize that i came up with a lot fewer random ideas for businesses when I was hungry. It just seemed like the world was less full of possibility, and so that was one of the clues that lead me on this path, to see emotion as being a 'measure of possibility.'
I'm sure plenty of people would say i am not an "emotionally mature adult" - and I know this is something i still work on. i'm extremely sensitive and have a hard time being around other people who are upset. I think i put so much work into learning how emotions work because I knew i kept having these intense responses where other people would have milder ones. I think i've been far more bothered in life by the pain I've caused others than those other people themselves were bothered.
Hunger itself isn't an emotion. It's a complex of physical sensations. However, in most people, it is highly coupled with various emotional responses. Hunger is one of the first things an infant experiences, often coupled with being fed by a parent and loved upon. It's not accident that a lot of people (not everyone) eat more when they are stressed. (Comfort food). I have seen otherwise mature adults regressed to childhood, infantile behaviors because they skipped a meal.
It's actually a fairly immature understanding of emotions to associate poor emotional control or behaviors with the level of maturity. Your ability to handle emotions has more to do with whether you fully pay attention to the emotions and process them out. Although people with greater physical age will tend to have experienced a wider range of emotions in a variety of life circumstances, if they don't pay attention to them when it happens, it festers in the back of the mind, carried on for years.
I think this model is a "good try". It seems good enough for now, for the author. And although it scratches the surface, I think it's great for anyone to think about this more closely.
To really start digging in there, you have to allow yourself to experience the emotion; "thinking" about an emotion without allowing yourself to experience it or be aware of it tends to be a way for the mind to avoid experiencing painful things.