> It seems to me that many think from the point of view of equipment and methods to the bees  instead of from the bees to the equipment and methods.

This is a perfectly acceptable approach, as starting from first principles, one can only keep bees in a container one has, and can only sell honey in containers one can get.  So, it is better to keep bees in what one has than to not keep bees at all.  Beekeeping is the art of making "something" from "nothing", and we all perform this magic trick every time we make a walk-away split, and watch it transform into a productive colony.  Part of starting with "nothing" is using whatever "equipment" is readily available.

The good news is that the bees prove over and over again that they can not just survive, but thrive under nearly any "roof", under a wide range of conditions, even those where the beekeeper engages in "management practices" that border on outright abuse.

Despite attempts by many beekeepers to make claims about proprietary knowledge concerning "optimized yields", "survival rates", and even the emotional "welfare" of the bees, beehives have changed very little in 200 years, save for the replacement of wood with plastic, which only cuts costs.  The era of "patent" hives seems incredibly amusing in hindsight, but the discussions here of "top vents" are just as earnest and lacking in hard data.  Attempts to apply math from thermodynamics are frustrated by the fact that a box crammed full of living individuals is best approximated by "Brownian motion", not by the simpler principles of singular black bodies and consistent conditions.  A beehive is neither an ice box or a teakettle, and "models" are of very limited usefulness for prediction the very short term.  The long term is simply unknowable with any accuracy.

One need look no further than the early 2000s Keyan NGO "HoneyCare Africa" to see that standardized Langstroth boxes certainly did result in higher yields than "traditional" log hives or hives made from wooden wine crates, and did allow beekeepers to make more honey and money, and pay back the Co-Op's "loan" of the equipment, but the lack of persistent follow-up support meant that many beekeepers went back to ad-hoc hives cobbled together from scrap when the "new" equipment suffered normal wear and tear, and stopped selling their honey to the Co-Op, instead selling it locally, packaged in the usual motley collection of recycled bottles and jars one sees in the hinterlands.

It might help to compare regional houses in which humans are comfortable to the beehives that sit in the backyards of those houses. I have kept bees for several decades in 3 very distinctly different climates - "Tropical Island" at  18.4 N latitude, "Subtropical/Desert Island" at 28 N, and "Temperate" climates, inland at 37.3, and on a small and densely urbanized temperate island at 40.7 latitude, on rooftops.   My own accommodations vary between locations, but the bees live in pretty much the same standard-issue hives (screened bottoms, 3/4-inch entrance depth, all medium boxes, migratory lids).

Clearly, humans will tweak their own structures "for comfort", and there is no single "best" ventilation scheme for houses in all climates, so I don't think that any "solution" to ventilation issues for bees that works in the plains of the USA and Canada will work in a moist jungle clearing.

But all my hives are the same - screened bottoms, all medium boxes, and fully-open entrances (bottom board with a 3/4-inch deep opening).  If it is a hot and muggy week, a penny or two may be inserted between the topmost super and the lid to make an "upper vent", which certainly does not hurt.   There are no upper vents, migratory lids all around. 

So, that's it - I use two US pennies 1.5mm (0.06 inches) thick placed atop the front corners of the topmost super "as required", which is a totally subjective criteria based upon how the beekeeper feels about the conditions.   One could open and close an upper entrance, but this would confuse the bees a bit, as they take time to adjust to a change in entrance location on the hive even when pollen traps are deployed.

I don't know if anyone keeps bees in as wide a variety of different climates as I do, but I have had no problems, as I have refrained from trying to keep bees in any location where the winter weather is cold enough to hurt my face when I go outside.  I grew up in NH, and I was a quick learner.

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