I just see I forgot to mention problem number 3:
The bottom side has (AFAIK) never a usable (and thermal
relevant) connection to the chip itself. wouldn't it be
somewhat stupid to rely on thermal transport into a region
where under all normal circumstanses no or only a minimal
heatremovel is possible ?).
That would be the fundamental problem, and I thought it was just the
opposite, but I suspect you may be right. The bottom does look a lot like a
"cap" now that I think about it.