Well I have to disagree with some of that. I hope you don't mind cuz that's what we're all here for it seems. Nothing wrong with disagreeing imo, that's what a debate is all about, arguing points without insulting one another.
There is an element that you are missing in determining whether your COIL is at a safe temperature. Heat dissipation of the vapor by the atty on the way to your mouth.
The study and this thread are focused on carbonyls being produced at elevated liquid temps, not what it feels like when it gets to your mouth. Different attys cool the vapor at different levels based on their design and material type eg a stumpy rda puts your mouth very close to the heat source where a K5 puts you further away where much more vapor cooling can transpire before reaching your mouth.
Point is, the carbonyls are being created at the hottest place (coil) and it's not going to go away just because your vapor is cooled on the way to your mouth.
Tc mods calculate temp at the coil where it counts.
Well you need to consider that the moment that the liquid is evaporated (which is near instantaneous) it is being replaced by cooler liquid, and the airflow is also cooling things a lot.
From what I understand you saying, the gray area is on the surface of the coil, how long does the liquid stay in this surface before it's evaporated and is that sufficient to break the molecules down.
Thing is, from a scientific view, once the coil is hot enough, the liquid doesn't really make contact with it, in simple terms, it creates a "floating area" (for lack of better term) where the liquid is absorbing the heat and evaporating at the same rate that it's being pulled away by the airflow. It's basically a "pressure" created by the heat and conversion of the liquid to it's aerosol state. Think of it as a very hot plate where you drop water on it.. the drops will actually not be touching the hot place but are suspended by the steam being produce by the heat radiating. That steam is at 100C and is being released and not going to get hotter unless you'd trap it and expose it to more heat.
So it's more complex than just liquid touching the hot coil... it's heat dissipation by evaporation but for it to work, you still need airflow.
And that's why if you aren't taking a pull and creating that airflow, TC kicks in near instantly. The liquid by itself isn't enough to absorb all the heat
The "danger" in my opinion is more about when you end up with the crap (sweeteners and such) that does not evaporate and end up attaching itself to the coil, and why I mentioned in an earlier posts that having a clean coil would be very important.
But run a coil under cold running water, TC will never trigger because the heat is being absorbed faster than the power to the coil is applied. Should you go with a massive amount of power to a small coil, until you reach a plasma phase type heat, the running water will continue to suck in the heat preventing the coil to even go red.
But in the meanwhile, at a certain level, done right, that coil can create a "cushion" of steam around it and the water no longer touches the metal directly... BUT the water's in close proximity will never go beyond it's boiling temperature, and this turns into the same scenario, where the evaporated water isn't staying there, it's airborne, and instantly replaced by cooler water that's not yet heated enough to be steam, and so on...
Should you obtain that goal and manage to glow a coil while running it under cold water, you're at levels of power that I wouldn't touch without a safety wall between me and that coil, as at that point, you're going into super-heating territory.
