Something that's been bugging me

When you go to a restaurant, what are you there for? Food. So you expect it to come out of the kitchen hot and tasty.
What you probably don’t expect, unless you’re ordering fajitas, is a plate so hot that touching it will fuse your skin to the plate. When I eat, occasionally I have to move the plate – either to get at something on the table, or maybe to re-situate things before I dig in. This is much harder to do when you’re hand is stuck to the plate, or you’re afraid it will so you don’t want to touch it.
Along the same lines, then, I have to wonder why these same restaurants insist on serving my childrens meals on the same piping hot plates. If one of the kids touches the plate, there’s going to be screaming and quite possibly a lawsuit – I don’t care what their reasoning is – the plate is too hot.
And let’s just think about it for a second, shall we? How often do you think a full-grown adult orders a plate of grilled cheese from the kids menu? Or a plate of hot dogs and macaroni-and-cheese? I’m thinking not too often. It’s not like the kids plates are even the same size as the adult plates – they’re usually smaller, and quite possibly of a different material that’s less likely to break when dropped. But they stick those in the plate heater just as readily as the ones for my appetizer, my main course and my dessert. Yes, the one with ice cream on it. Whatever.
We do they do this? Is it to cook the food just a little more while bringing it to the table? Is it to make the food tasty just a little longer? No-one has been able to explain it to me, but I certainly would appreciate it if someone could.