>That number has nearly zero bearing on the actual physical sizes of the chip's components.
AFAIK the reason behind this madness is that the number previously did correspond to feature size, but then they discovered methods of increasing transistor density without decreasing the size of the components. Since the feature size was used in marketing as a proxy for transistor density, they felt it was ultimately justified to decrease the number. After all, if your enhanced 32nm process provided the same transistor density as your competitor's 22nm process, why shouldn't you market your process as "22nm"?
That number has nearly zero bearing on the actual physical sizes of the chip's components.
The only people who know about the exact dimensions are the firms placing manufacturing contracts with TSMC.