It is a personal thing - some people just are tougher. My husband is a heat machine- I do not think he ever has been cold (actually he is my heat redundency). I was born cold. When everyone else is fine in a 30 degree bag, I need a 0-degree bag. Husband is sitting around in a T-shirt; I have on three layers. Each person has to find his own "UL balance" where you still are safe.
Well, that's where you're *comfortable* - I'm the same, In a buttoned up tent, mostly naked, lying on a half length pad with my 0C bag zipped over my feet and half covering me - meanwhile my better half is cocooned in my -12C rated WM bag.. However I'm not sure the "cold sleepers" versus warm sleepers will be any tougher when they are both "uncomfortable". (I'm sure you'd hike *me* into the ground
I suppose I gotta admit the word presses a button with me, I just hate the word "tough" used in that context - been on trips with groups where the most petite little thing that was cold at night (and getting pestered at the start of the trip) cheerfully walked through nasty stuff for another three days, enjoying being out, while all the "tough" ones just bitched and complained about the weather.. tough is a state of mind, it aint physical.
And that is going to be different equipment and weight for different people, for different conditions. BUT, as you venture into more severe condtions (high altitude, continous bad weather, remoteness) I really believe that UL becomes more risky. That is not to say that ultra "Heavy" is safe either!
I think you are simply assuming that UL is a cat stove and a 5x8 cuben tarp - something I would happily take on into a lot of places, and not anywhere near others. I'd not deliberately try to sleep under a 5x8 tarp in some of the places I have above.. What is UL in Virginia in June is not the same as what I'd call UL in the places you and I frequent.
By the same token, I go in there pretty darn light, and I think I was probably a lot riskier in such places when I was young and knew everything
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