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Great observations. FWIW, the need for a long warmup is pretty common of course – but it does seem to be something that one can train themself to be less dependent on (though I don’t know if there’s any data on this).
For instance, I’ve mentioned Met percussionist Rob Knopper before, and one thing he did before the audition is start every day with a cold runthrough of his list. He’d do a short 10-min or so warmup, sit for a moment, and then record a runthrough. He did this every day for months in advance, and noted that it feels awful at first, but you do start to get comfortable being uncomfortable, and are able to play closer to your best when this starts to feel more normal. As in, the sense of ease that exists when you’re completely warmed up, comfortable, etc. may not be there, but the ability to play the way you want regardless may be improved.
Maybe see what happens if you do this on a tiny scale for, say, 30 days? Like do a minimal, but still effective warmup, then record 20-30 seconds of something, and then practice like normal? And see if your confidence in the minimal warmup and your playing (on the recording, not necessarily how you feel) increases over time? It’s possible the warmup itself may evolve, as well as your mental script, pre-performance routine, etc. over those 30 days (which is just an arbitrary number too, of course).
