Thermodynamics is much simpler than detailed tyre modelling, I would certainly agree, though I suspect the tyre deformation is really the easy part. I should add I've not worked with a physically based tyre model before.
From reading Scawen's posts in the past, I think he has a decent enough detailed physical model but, rather unsurprisingly really, it was not realtime. Making a new empirical model that fits it well and runs fast is a whole new challenge.