I have used tubs successfully for 15 years and never found there to be an issue regarding them except they are absolutely mundane to look at. I think most beginners (with best intentions) use an aquarium and fancy additions in hopes of restoring the snake to its natural habitat and this becomes very difficult and troublesome to replicate.

That being said, I would not use any type of lamp or ceramic heater with a tub setup, even arboreal. Regarding holes, you can definitely run a series of tests to check humidity levels, etc by starting with a small amount of holes and increasing them as you go, monitoring the levels. An awful lot of work imho and overthinking the process.

Best thing about tubs are that you can have several extra set up and ready to go for messes when you don't have time to spend changing everything. Pull old tub out, put new tub in, transfer snake...you're done.