Steeping oats and flaked barley

TroubleShooting

Colin Henein • Ottawa, Ontario asks,

Serious brewing references say that grains like oats and flaked barley need to be mashed with base malts rather than just steeped. I have heard that steeping these grains leads to problems with haze, increased possibility of contamination and shorter shelf-life of finished beer. Despite this, I often see these ingredients in extract recipes with instructions to just steep at 160 °F (71 °C). Are the concerns about steeping these grains warranted, and these are just bad recipes? Alternatively, is there a time and place for steeping these grains and what differences can be expected from using them in this way?