Whoa, that's wild that they didn't post anything about where the data goes. Did you ask anyone working there about the opt out or get pointed to a website or something?

The pop and smoke is what always gets me. I once bought a used PSU off Craigslist and the guy assured me it was "barely used" right before it took out my motherboard like it was doing a magic trick. Two hours of steady stress test volts is a good sign though, so fingers crossed that guy was actually honest.

The digging is what gets you, right? Watching someone root around in a stack of quarts while tickets pile up is its own special kind of pain, and it always seems to happen at the worst time. Six weeks of flat pans and a four minute drop on a 180 cover night is real, that is not a small change. I feel you on the cold question though, because flat single layers do warm up faster than a deep quart, so the win depends on how fast your line moves through stuff. If your chives sit out for three hours either way, the pans are still fine, but you have to keep them rotated and not overfill. Feels like you traded a little hold time for a lot of speed, and on a Friday rush that is the right trade.