Drilled holes or mesh

[Dedenne]

Hello! Me again with more stupid questions!
I have been looking at making a transport box of a plastic box I have laying around if it happens that I need to take Missy to the vet or something (and buying one seems unnecessarily when I have this box that is the perfect size already) and realized that I do not really understand why people use mesh when building bin cages that comes with a plastic lid. Why not just drill a lot of holes in the lid and use it like that?

If you make small enough holes that covers the whole lid and some around the top edge of the cage (you can see it if you google bin cage) the ventilation should be almost the same. You can probably even make just slits like in the habitat eco on zooplus, just smaller so the hamster cannot escape. The thing I can think of is that the hamster might start biting in the holes and get out but for that it needs to reach in a way so it can start biting it and a lot of people use bin cages without any lid at all and it would take some time so It should be obvious before it gets too far.
I must have missed something

[mlwinters]

I guess its much easier and far quicker to just cut out a piece of the lid out and attach wire mesh than to drill a million holes to provide good enough ventilation. It would take ages and unless you use a drill press with a jig, the chance of getting the holes in perfect rows is limited.

Just an idea, tape enough pieces of paper together to create 1 big sheet thats bigger than your lid. Draw the outline of the lid and then draw a grid inside the outline allowing for any lips, overhangs/handles ect (10x10mm maybe). Every T junction and every + junction, mark with a dot. This will tell you how many holes you would need to drill. You would need to make sure you have a good spacing between each hole to preserve structural integrity and to give more material for you hamster to chew through in order to escape. If needed this sheet of paper can be stuck to the lid as a drilling template.

I am new to the hamster world so I'm not the best person to ask so please check with other first. However, I would think that if you really wanted to drill 100's or 1000's of holes, then as long as the holes are small enough, with a good spacing between each hole and enough of them then it would be fine.