Been using the laptop without ext monitor and power for the evening. It works so well in this setup that I'll give it one more chance as a desktop hub before selling it: Cooler Master Ergostand III. It's a 6-level stand that has a fan with a diameter of a soccer ball: 230 mm. It runs at 500-800 RPM (should be quiet) and moves more than 200 cubic meters of air per hour. I don't expect it to be a silver bullet for the fan noise, but it'd be great if the thermal throttling under long-term moderate load would subside. Will report any findings.
There's an Ergostand IV, but it has a smaller fan with higher RPM (noise potential), so went with the model 3. It should arrive in a couple of days.
Update. I ran the MacBook on top of CoolerMaster ErgoStand III today, and it's not doing much to help. A simple 1080p YouTube video will still run the RPMs to 4000, then above 5000 in the long term. The top/bottom case was cool, but fans were still going wild.
In addition, when the computer is monitors-off and completely idle, once the fans spin down to 2000s, the base rumble generated by the cooling pad is more annoying than the laptop itself. It's not loud, it's only 800 RPM, but the low-frequency rumble resonates from the wooden table. The overall experience doesn't meaningfully improve and in some ways gets worse.
I've also tested a 13" Rain Design aluminium stand, which I've owned for maybe 10 years. It does get warm and perhaps adds a bit of extra heat exchange. Don't know if that alone makes any difference - it might. More importantly, it raises the sides and the back off the table, which increases airflow.
I've got a Dragon Skin in the top/bottom of the MacBook Pro. It's there to avoid scratches, and now allows re-using the smaller stand, which otherwise would be touching metal against metal. This way the left/right/back edges are actually floating outside the stand, which leaves plenty of room for air to move; yet the bottom plate is against metal, in theory conducting off the heat. This results in a pretty stable 3100 RPM for regular web browsing, which is OK for me. And Rain Design is nice to look at. I would hope it at least keeps the CPU limp mode away under long-term heavy loads.
I'll return the cooling pad and keep using the aluminium stand for now. It's not a good time to make expensive exchanges to an iMac, since the MacBook Pro is plenty powerful for work. Just hot & noisy, just like the title of this endless thread says.
For reference, I've got an LG 5k attached to the right side port of the Mac and 2x QHD monitors attached through a CalDigit Mini Dock to the left side port of the Mac. They have to be on opposite sides to work; 5k TB3 swallows the whole one side alone, graphics-wise. The LG provides 95 Watts of power for the system from the right. I've read that right-side ports are better for heat management. CalDigit Mini is not a power source, it's just to provide 2x HDMI ports and Ethernet to NAS.
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