[Xiaomi Mi 11i / 11X Pro / Redmi K40 Pro+] Jeik:
EDIT: And to answer your question, some discussed disabling NFC by removing its components in order to stop the heating while using the .EU builds.

To be fair, I have been criticizing the recent choices of smartphone makers, and I feel like the latest one (plastic frames) made the issue with the SD888 even worse.

My K20 Pro (and many other flagships before 2021) heats up while under heavy use, but it dissipates the heat thanks to its aluminum frame (and it, although not as much and jokingly, can use one's hands as "water cooling" thanks to the blood flow).

I usually don't like people who mumble about conspiracies, but this trend feels like a slippery slope (it feels like the manufacturers are slowly "testing" which BS they can shove down the customers' throats without backlash).

First the headphone jack, then the notch (while there was a pop-up mechanism as an alternative, people complain how it's a moving part but aren't aware that a replacement is up to around 20$), then the "environmentally-friendly" lack of a charger in flagships and now the use of plastic.

But the price gets higher and the value stagnates or actually gets traded off.

I considered buying the Mi 11i but then I saw all the cases of overheating. Then I thought "well, the OnePlus 9 costs at least 200$ more here, it will probably have a metal frame and better thermals if they want you to pay so much". But lo and behold, it also has a plastic frame and to "cover" that, they capped the in-game fps to 60 so people wouldn't see the mess that the SD888 is.

I am honestly appalled by the fact that there are so many phones released by Xiaomi this year but not a single one is an optimal choice.

The Redmi Note 10 Pro has a good screen and a 108MP camera but its CPU is mediocre and it can't record beyond 4k@30fps.

The Poco F3 has a great CPU that doesn't overheat but has the same 48MP camera as my Redmi K20 Pro while officially only supporting 4k@30fps (while the K20 Pro shoots 4k@60fps from the get go, and I know GCam lets you enforce 4k@60fps on the F3 but that's just an improvisation).

The Mi11i has a 108MP camera but its CPU overheats due to the incompetence of Xiaomi and Qualcomm when it comes to thermal design.

And the Mi 11 has a curved, IMO overkill 1440p screen (I dislike curved screens as someone who owned a Galaxy S9+, and I can say the same about 1440p smartphone screens), a 108MP camera but an unattractive design and an even higher price tag.

My point:

For the same reasons you mentioned (and more), I am going to steer clear of the SD888, and am buying the Poco F3 instead of the Mi 11i since the price here is 200$ lower, there is an active development for it and because my K20 Pro is damaged and dying.

Yet it's frustrating how there are so many new phones nowadays but none can provide what I want without having to pay as much as for a goddamn gaming laptop(which I didn't have to do 2 years ago when I bought an "all-screen" phone with a headphone jack, flagship processor with decent thermals, an aluminium frame and a decent camera for 400$ - the Redmi K20 Pro).

2 years later, you pretty much trade a 60Hz screen for 120Hz and a metal frame for a plastic one (and thus potentially worse thermals) while losing the headphone jack and getting a hole blown through the screen for a selfie camera one uses maybe twice a day on average (unless their self-esteem is so low that they need their ego stroked every hour in the form of liked selfies).

To each their own, but nowadays it feels like there is less of a "choice" while buying a phone, and rather a matter of "picking the less disappointing option".