I mentioned the "babbling brook episode" because one of the complaints about boiling water is the length of time it takes for the water to cool down. Much more typically I have been in cooler to very cold situations where the hot water is transformed to tea (or coffee, if you prefer) and consumed promptly, the better to warm the Inner Man. Actually, I was once in a situation where we had a thermos of hot water and somehow no tea bags, not even coffee grounds. So we drank hot water straight. On a cool, breezy day, it was surprisingly good, and we utilized the heat it contained.

I suspect that in most remote backcountry situations where you are in the upper reaches of a drainage, the water is pretty much OK without any treatment. I much prefer to do something to be sure the water doesn't contain any nasties, but I have imbibed plenty of raw water, a few from rather dubious sources and as far as I know, I have never been sick