They've been serving crab/seafood boils like this for as long as I can remember. As a kid, we went to Baltimore, partially to have the steamed crabs, and they put newspaper on the table and dump the steamed crabs on top. No one was ever concerned about it being unhealthy since you're not actually eating (or even licking) the outside of the shells that contacts the paper.
This has also been a common thing to do in a classic Louisiana crawfish boil.... Just dump them on the table and let everyone gather around and go to town! It's been like that since my grandfather was a kid and who knows how long before that!
ETA: for something like spaghetti, hell no! That's just gross...
