I don't understand what you are saying with regard to your incident but ventilation holes are not there for decoration. It doesn't really matter if your monitor had vents in the bottom and sides. If it had vents in the top as well, they would have been taken into the design considerations. The bottom line on that bit is simple - if your appliance has vents never cover them or assume you know better than the manufacturer (I'm not suggesting you did any such thing).

Sorry to hear of your disaster. I hope nothing personal and irreplacable went missing or got damaged.