The AWS-8Q can ride the heat curve fine, but pursuant to the overall point, the Awesome also doesn't really have much to change. It isn't sacrificing anything to be where it is. There's not an easy number of hear sinks you can rip off for something better. +4 while running and firing all main guns is entirely reasonable.
I think we also disagree significantly on what "toothless" means, or you're flat out unwilling to ride the heat scale. If you have an Archer that's taking multiple full salvos from SRM-6s with Infernos, yes there is a problem. The problem is not that your Archer is overheating. Even with max heat from external sources the Archer is still getting a full turn of shooting and assuming it ran and fired one set of weapons or the other you're only going up to +11 or +17. Neither of those check for ammo explosions and only one has an easy shutdown check.