Well they do say it has a larger heat sink and more airflow. So now it will just throttle after 9 seconds instead of 3. lol

I agree for the most part, although it could make a good B camera if you need something small for some special tight/light circumstances.

"How, precisely, does a 2.7GHZ sensor relate to processing 6K RAW images?"
What is a 2.7GHZ sensor? do you mean processor?

"As you can see in the above screencap, for certain resolution/framerate combinations, the CPU can handle it, but the GPU (metal, in this case), can't."
The screenshot shows the GPU being better in ever column than the CPU. in the 12:1 scenario they are the same. GPU can do 3456p25 in 12:1, 8:1, and 5:1 and bumps down to 2160p60 for 3:1 while the CPU can do 2160p50 at 8:1 and drops down to 2160p30 for 5:1 and 3:1. Or you can look at the "How Fast?" section and see that the Metal (GPU) numbers are larger than the CPU numbers (aside from 12:1 HD and 4k where the GPU is off by 3fps and 1fps respectively).

To answer your question, yes you can get a quality reference image out of a GPU without a hardware box, but it requires a lot of know how about color management when it comes to the software/OS you are using. I'd recommend reading some of this if you want to learn more - https://jonnyelwyn.co.uk/film-and-video-editing/colour-management-for-vi...

No that's not what this device is. You are looking for the web presenter - https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/blackmagicwebpresenter

Yes there is a cost to the engineering and all that jazz but event for workstation grade hardware it's expensive.

I just looked at dell's site and configured a similar workstation.

8 Core xeon,
32gb ecc ram
Quadro P4000
256gb nvme

Total cost - $3647.57
https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/pdr/precision-7920-workstation/xcto...

If I wanted to spend $6118 I could jump up to a 16 core with a quadro p5000
https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/pdr/precision-7920-workstation/xcto...