I don't see what insight brought by Hamilton's rule "does the trick". It seems we are simply saying what 'colony selection'/'superorganism' says as well - the positive benefit to the queen is what matters.

Yes, well the reason you don't see it is that you are trying to rediscover the wheel, and to do so by asking questions of a few individuals whom you happen to meet on an Internet thread, instead of going back to the books and reading the background. Forgive me for suggesting it, but The Selfish Gene might not be a bad place to start. You could then advance to Alan Grafen's brilliant chapter in Krebs and Davies, Behavioural Ecology. You might then be ready to tackle Hamilton himself, Volume 1 of Narrow Roads of Gene Land. I'm sorry, but this is difficult stuff, brilliant stuff, and you can't expect to understand its elegance and theoretical power after only a few desultory exchanges on a chat thread.

Richard