A seldom (never?) noted advantage of flat substrate (newspaper, paper towel, etc)

[Bogertophis]

In the example given, there's only enough room for one hide anyway. And we do advocate at least 2 hides, one warm & one cool side.

While it may seem cool that a snake can "turtle" around with their hide & stop over the temperature they prefer, I'm not convinced that they're actually selecting the right temperature, or just landing on it by luck?

There are 2 big reasons that I don't like "smooth" substrates (newspaper, butcher paper, etc):

(1) They don't absorb urates/feces well, & the snake ends up smearing around in it. Not what I'd call optimal for my scaly buddies.

(2) Snakes get no traction, which can be stressful for them. Smooth paper allows nothing for them to push off of, to move easily, which is another reason I have doubts that they're ending up on their temperature of choice. I think they're just as likely to end up sliding to the wrong temperature as to the one they actually need.

I totally agree that snakes REQUIRE the opportunity to thermoregulate, I just don't agree with the OP as to the best way to ensure they can do that. That's my $0.02 on this idea.