You do have to watch them eat when they're on paper towel--every once in a blue moon, a baby will try to swallow the paper with the prey. It gets tangled up a little bit more easily than newspaper does.

Apart from that, I like paper towel for hatchlings, too--it's nice and absorbant, and easy to clean.

I don't believe in spot-cleaning. Once you see the volume of a good snake pee, you'll see how much filth would be left behind if you were using a particulate bedding and spot-cleaning.