Thermodynamic principles are often deceptively simple and yet surprisingly powerful. We show how a simple rule, such as the net flow of energy in and out of a moving atom under a nonequilibrium steady state condition, can expose the shortcomings of many popular theories of quantum friction. Our thermodynamic approach provides a conceptual framework in guiding atom-optical experiments, thereby highlighting the importance of fluctuation-dissipation relations and long-time correlations between subsystems. Our results introduce consistency conditions for (numerical) models of nonequilibrium dynamics of open quantum systems.