I personally barely do any gaming on my phones…ever since phones went full touchscreen I have always found gaming less than satisfactory on them, though I am impressed by the graphics but for the most part I play very lite games.
The reason I tend to find things like thermal management important in my smartphones is that although I don’t game, I do use the Camera a lot for both Video and Photography, as well as using GPS as I use Waze on Apple CarPlay while driving (very helpful in terms of keeping track of speed limit changes on some of our highways).
Both Camera and GPS usage can drive the SoC to high temperatures pretty quickly, along with Battery drain, so the balance of lower thermals and longer battery life become very important.
What I have loved liked with my 17 PM is how it has done a good job of both lower thermals and longer battery life when using Camera or GPS extensively, especially when out and about or at a festival.
One doesn’t have to use a modern smartphone at “Pro-level ways” to hit the thermal ceiling, a combination of apps can easily do that sometimes, but this all depends on ones usage patterns, mine vary widely so I know I benefit from what a Pro Max brings, but another person may have much more limited usage patterns that don’t stretch the phone much and may not need all the stuff that makes a Pro.