I have been around them in outdoor bars, I agree, the one's I've seen put out almost no heat unless you are very close to it, which makes sense.
A wood fire gets "hottest" when you get to embers, not the flames, same with charcoal of course. The flames are lower temperature burning volatiles that need to be burned off before you get the higher temperature volatiles burning. That is why coal is so hot when it burns, and coking coal even hotter.
NG can never get that way.