I would add that your point about Revelation 20:14 is a good example of flawed hermeneutics. It embodies a proof by example fallacy ("I know that x, which is a member of group X, has the property P. Therefore, all other elements of X have the property P") which uses the passage as a "proof text" in order to render the notion of eschatological torment as necessarily figurative or allegorical elsewhere on account of how it is used in this single example. The notion of eschatological torment by fire occurs frequently outside this single passage, and in many sources predating Revelation, and in many cases it is clearly NOT figurative (such as martyrs experiencing very real torture being reminded of the everlasting torture they might experience if they submit, or the description of the places of Gehenna and Sheol in the context of a geographical description of the far places of the earth). It is a well-attested concept in the literature of Second Temple Judaism which has the same eschatological "reality" as the other apocalyptic notions it was packaged with (e.g. resurrection, divine judgment, reward of eternal life to the righteous), yet I don't recall quite as much effort to spiritualize away these other concepts. In Revelation 20:14 we have an instance of this notion being extended to a personified "Death and Hades" (cf. "Its rider was named Death and Hades was following close behind him" in 6:8, cf. the "keys of Death and Hades" versus the "key of David" in 1:18, 3:7); the personification of Death and Hades faciliates a figurative (yes figurative!) extension of the concept from persons to personified entities, unless we have here a hendiadys pertaining to an actual personal figure (cf. the personage of Death in the Testament of Abraham who comes to the patriarch to claim his life). This extension to personified entities is exceptional and is limited to this single text. It does not disqualify or preempt the notion of eschatological torment otherwise to persons, and it does not govern the overall concept found elsewhere.
So in the parable of the sheep and goats (Matthew 25), what are figurative are the symbols of sheep and goats used to designate the two groups of people who have very different destinies. The reward of eternal life in the kingdom for the righteous is complementary to the eternal punishment in eternal fire for the wicked. It is special pleading to treat the latter as figurative, symbolic, etc. and not the former. (Perhaps the righteous don't literally have eternal life, but rather live on in the memories of those who remember them?) The Watchtower Society recognizes the parallelism here and tries to avoid the problem by redefining the meaning of kolasin "punishment" in a most strained manner (as "cutting-off" in an appeal to the etymological fallacy, ignoring usage here).
