Bill,
I was paraphrasing the content from Performabilt's website. I also tend to think that the quick warm-up should help the trans and I know that, in general, liquid to liquid heat exchangers work better that liquid to air heat exchangers.
Interestly, Performabilt is the only trans company I know of that extends their normal warranty to trans used for racing. Maybe their encouragement of the use of separate coolers, and providing them, has been something that helps to reduce the number of failures they have to deal with under warranty due to dirty in-radiator coolers.
Also interesting is their opinion of heat damage to auto trans. They seem much less concerned with it than I expected to read.
IMHO, you're giving GM way too much credit for doing the right thing on purpose. Even the old GM, that designed and built our beloved Stovebolts. I'm a 33-yrs exp Avionics design engineer. My entire career has been a struggle between my desire to build the best systems I can and the company's push to build the cheapest system that meets the schedule. I know it's not the same market, but I find it hard to imagine that automotive is significantly different.
regards,
Leon
