I'd like to make an off topic, and probably unwanted commentary. This has been bugging me ever since the thread was first posted.
I understand the thinking about fighting a writing desk in the DMT. You figure that that by making it a 0 turn combat you are saving a turn, but this is completely false. You do not save a turn instead you lose an opportunity.
If you use that writing desk to burn delay in Cobb's Knob or The Spooky Forest, your turn count is exactly the same. You need to spend 10 turns in the knob and 5 turns in the forest. If you fight 4 writing desks in those zones, it is just as good as their being 0 turn combats in the accounting of your final turncount.
However, by fighting the writing desk in the DMT you lose the opportunity to get abstractions to drop and you lose the chance to convert abstractions to a higher level. Additionally, you are blocking a scaling monster's experience points.
Essentially, the issue here is that you can choose for your writing desk to override useless low exp monsters in the knob and forest or you can override useful, scaling monsters in the DMT. Either way, you are simply replacing one of those monsters so total turn count does not change.