> there is the possibility for energy transfer

I think this is where the debate is. I’m not a physicist but my understanding of the current dark matter models is that it doesn’t interact with itself in a way that could be thought of as “energy transfer” (ie. like particles that collide), but only gravitationally. This would mean there’s no real way for a dark matter “particle” to transfer momentum to another particle, and thus no real way for “heat” to exist as such.

Gravity can transfer energy. For example gravitational waves transfer energy. They can be used to boil a kettle of strong enough