CC, you've rattled a few people on here because of the tone of your questions and statements rather than what you're asking
- keep it light-hearted whenever you can and you'll get a more measured conversation going.
There have been a few threads on here over the years that describe good practice for fire lighting in the wilds. Unfortunately, some are out of date.
It is relatively easy to have an overnight, small, camp/cook fire and, with preparation, to 'repair' the patch so that there is no visible trace and the site is safe - however, that is not the whole story. We now know that the earth beneath a fire gets scorched for a considerable depth and all important microbial life and the mycorrhizal fungi get destroyed and can take a long time to recover. Then, of course, there is the danger of tree root damage and smouldering fires at quite a depth after larger or prolonged fires.
In a vast landscape that is not so much of a problem when there are few fires if the site is made 100% safe; in the UK, with a population of over 67 million and an average population density of over 250 people per square kilometre, it is obvious we can't all go around lighting ground fires.
So advice is: if the weather and terrain allows, light fires in stoves or pits raised off the ground if possible; otherwise build a mound of surface soil, sand, stones (with care) or gravel and light a small fire on that; or, only light fires on inert ground - riverside gravel and rock, sand etc. Only light the size fire you need for the task: cook, warmth, distress signal etc.
The guidance for making the site safe and hiding evidence remain as they have for years.
I do not have the luxury of being so tidy in my own wood when I am working. I have to burn the brash on the ground near where I am working; but you would have difficulty identifying where the fire was the following season. But brash fires are 'open' fires and do not have that central core of extreme heat that a camp fire has after hours or even days of use; there is a difference.
Whenever I go to someone else's wood, or to a meet, I take a cheap folding fire pit and use that with a heat shield underneath it. The one permanent camp in my wood has a large, solid, firepit raised off the ground.