Yeah - it’s a little (or more!) artificial. Although when I rode triple bypass this year, I smelled hot brake pads / rims from riders in front of me on a number of occasions (E.g. at the bottom of long bike-path descents where all the riders bunch up at a turn). I had never experienced that before.
My bikes all have disc brakes, so this whole rim brake thing isn’t something I have any direct experience with (other than when I was a kid decades ago!).