Quite a bit of what you pull up off the 'net or read in books is old and outdated material. The printed page, once it is purchased and sitting on your shelf, never changes, even though the practices shown on the page have changed. I'd be willing to bet that your reptile specialists and veterinarians have long since changed their ideas on tortoise-keeping, and yet their works still show the old fashioned way.
Yes, baby tortoises spend a lot of time underground where the temperature is cooler. But that is a wild baby tortoise. In captivity a baby tortoise lives in some sort of container and we have to do the best we can to provide him with the moisture he needs so the lights don't dissicate him.
Yvonne, I'm confused. None of the information I have put up was from an old printed book.
The information I have put up in the way of website links is current. If you look at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum care sheet for desert tortoises you will see at the bottom that it is dated for this year. This is information that is based on reptile specialist veterinarians with a lot of experience caring for desert tortoises. I don't always agree with everything, and tweak any care sheet info to fit what I'm more comfortable with.
That's why I posted earlier:
For hatchlings the care sheets I gave you links for don't address how often to soak the baby tortoise. A constant source of clean water in a very shallow dish is very important. I find hatchlings are in and out of the water all day. The water needs to be shallow enough that the hatchling can easily breathe while sitting in the water. (About a quarter of an inch or less is usually enough.)
I'm not sure what point you're trying to make in the second paragraph. I had pointed out that excessive heat can be dangerous. So I guess you're agreeing with me there?
Personally, I prefer to offer more water rather than less. I find that there's a limit to how much an adult desert tortoise will drink or soak regardless of what I do. I prefer leaving a clean water dish which is sanitized daily available to the desert tortoise whether hatchling or adult. It just makes me more comfortable. However, watching my adult desert tortoise's behavior I realize that it was not necessary. But my tendency is to want to go above and beyond. So I would never consider it to be bad information when what is needed for the tortoise is explained in detail. We can always do more than what's required. And I do.