I have a FineWoven case on my 15 Pro Max and, just adding to the anecdata here, have not had a single thermal issue. The only time it warmed up was during the initial data transfer. I'm pushing the phone with a lot of cinematic video recording, etc – remarkably cool.
I watched this story blossom out of a few social accounts I had to mute because it started to feel like they really wanted to get likes on 'iPhone 15 Pro Max is a disaster' type posts.
That's the tricky thing about the information environment we're in. A real issue affecting people? Or a non-issue that's being boosted and then picked up into a bigger story. Devices sometimes have issues – not debating that. Just saying, I feel like there's been very little skepticism applied here.