Exactly, its just cope. Someone who grew up entirely on metric temperature will have exactly the same intuition. For example myself:

<0 = freezing 0-10 = Cold 11-17 = Warming up 18-24 = Comfortably warm 25-29 = Tropical 30-40 = Uncomfortably hot >40 = Dangerously hot

Besides which, all of this goes out the window once wind chill and other external effects that absolute temperature cannot account for come into play.

It's the usual American exceptionalism that causes them to throw a tantrum every time they're asked to conform to a worldwide standard. There's a reason most of the world uses metric measurements for most things in every day life, and its because it just works once you get used to it.