I think that’s a sophisticated re-rendering, and that most ordinary folks do associate the word “hunger” with famine, with starving, with terrible deprivation.

I don't think the definition is that narrow. There's definitions like this:

a compelling need or desire for food. the painful sensation or state of weakness caused by the need of food: to collapse from hunger. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/hunger

• a craving or urgent need for food or a specific nutrient
• an uneasy sensation occasioned by the lack of food weakened condition brought about by prolonged lack of food

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hunger

It's indeed often used to describe more dire situations around a lack of food, but it's not exclusively used for those situations. Hunger is also the corresponding noun to "feeling hungry". Hungriness isn't used that often.