Hi sacredrage,
You’re certainly correct on both counts.
While the Golden Elegance uses some good quality materials in the mattress including 3" of natural latex (I’m not sure if this is 100% natural or a blend), horsehair, a very good quality coil, and wool and cashmere in the cover (although the cashmere may be a very low percentage) … it also has either 3" (see here) or 4" (see here) of supersoft and hypersoft polyfoam in the top layers which have an undisclosed density/quality (likely in the midrange of foam quality) and would be enough for me to pass it by even if it was in a budget range that was half the price. The polyfoam would have much too high a risk of premature softening and breakdown and the loss of comfort and support that goes with it and it’s hard to justify its use in layers this thick in a mattress that is well over $3000 (queen mattress only). You are basically sleeping on 3" - 4" of polyfoam of questionable quality.
You can read a little more about the factors that can affect the sleeping temperature of a mattress in post #2 here and there is more about the different types of gel foams and how they can affect sleeping temperature in post #9 here. In most cases the claims for the cooling effect of gel memory foam is more than the reality although they do have some temporary effect on temperature which can vary depending on the percentage of gel in the material.
In case you haven’t read it yet … the first place to start your mattress research is the tutorial post here and when you get to step 3 and are ready to test mattresses some of the better options and possibilities I’m aware of in the Los Angeles area are listed in post #2 here.
Phoenix