Worked identically to XIV endgame content. You did them on lockout, got a token or item for the lockout period, and then waited until the timer was up again. Worse, sometimes you got nothing and still got locked out . Dynamis currency, anyone?
I would guess that they intended temple leves to be more in the vein of Assault, given the elevator pitch for them, but that didn't really execute as well as I would have expected. I wouldn't mind seeing Assault's region-specific armory/glamour concept brought back so those leves that are currently collecting dust could be put to good use. There's legitimately no reason to use a leve allowance as a combat class because even as melee dps filth your DF queue timer is way better XP/hr than doing any levequests...
