Yea, I've always been fortunate enough to always have bigger cooling pads than laptops. I once saw the cooling pads without cooling fans and I was like wtf? I've been fortunate enough that I've never had to resort to those. I can move my legs, toss it, put it anywhere. It's durable. I was a bit annoyed when I found out that they actually have some with multiple usb hubs but mine has none but that is secondary. Seeing how I didnt think I'd even find one and now I got a great one on second hand.
I think that is strange, I never noticed, but I do think it seems that they extract. When I first saw it it didnt make sense to me. I thought the lap side which is soft went with the laptop. But that didnt make sense because how would it blow the fans? The fans also look upside down. I asked a worker and he explained to me there is where the laptop went. Then it has this two sided connected board I thought opened up but apparently it doesnt if I do try to open it up which I almost did without reading manual it would break.
I didnt think of that part of the battery part but it does make sense and it does consume the batter a bit more but back in the day I actually used to connect that to a usb adapter and connect it straight to the power. I havent thought of that yet but might try something. It's just that the cable is also so short. Just enough for the laptop.