Insulation is actually very important in a tent cot. I have camped with mine many times in colder weather and until I started insulating myself with a wool blanket under my sleeping pad, I was colder than had I been on the ground. The reason is the same as why there are signs that say "Caution, bridge freezes before road"! You have cold air circulating under your body.
Also a warning to those tent-cotters out there... the earlier versions, at least, will get you wet in the rain. This spectacular design feature has gotten them dubbed "Wet Cots" by our group. The design flaw we found was that with the weight of a body in the cot, it sags the center of the cot down so that it is lower than the outer perimiter frame. Water would run down the sides of the tent fabric and instead of dripping directly onto the ground it would follow the bottom material (which is not waterproof) and eventually drip to the ground under the lowest point (center of the cot). The water would wick back up through the material and give you a good bottom-up soaking.
One of my friends fixed this by sewing a "skirt" around the outside of the cot, which forced the water to drip onto the ground. We submitted this design change to Kamp-Rite (who owned the design at the time) and they actually added this feature to production models.
So, be warned, if yours doesnt have the skirt, you'll get wet in the rain!
