Bill Konrad wrote
Or is it supposed to be a mechanism for putting an end (or at least a cease-fire) to active edit wars?
3RR is there because the community (in the end) came to support it. Edit warring 'for its own sake' is disliked. The fact that it may sometimes catch up people who then are compelled to have a time out is not, I think, considered a major disadvantage. It lends itself to getting a little perspective. In your case, your degree of perspective can't seriously be faulted, so it might well seem superfluous.
Charles