Defense Acquisition Research Journal (ARJ) - is a scholarly peer-reviewed journal published by the Defense Acquisition University (DAU). All submissions receive a blind review to ensure impartial evaluation.
Cream cheese should be unrefrigerated for no more than 2 hours.
In pastry class we left it out overnight all the time - sometimes 18 hours before using. I can almost guarantee this would be how professional bakers would treat cream cheese (though can't speak from direct professional experience on that one). You just can't speed up softening cream cheese to room temp, it just doesn't react to heat/microwave well. Same for marscapone.