I think we have to go to the PhilosophyForum.org for the answer to your question. We get myopic about things and do not see that something that works well for one application might also work well for an entirely different one! It helps to stand back from a problem (How do I keep my curds warm?) and look at it a different way (My curds cool because they loose heat. Where exactly in the vat does the highest heat loss occur? What can I do about this?). I don't know if you discovered the use of the seed mat by thinking about the problem this way or not. Likely, you had a "flash", tried the seed mat, and presto!, it worked.
The reason I think your idea is great is two fold: 1) I was heating our entire laundry room with a little 1500 watt electrical space heater, sweating every time I went in to check the cheddar curds and pissing my wife off in the process. 2) Even though the solution was about 25 feet away in our garage I failed think of it. My solution worked, your solution is elegant.
And that, Gregore, is the reason the cheese you got from me was the most sacred one I've ever given out!