To me, someone who celebrates a bit more of the spectrum than most: Metal hot. Make food hot.
Non-stick means easier cleanup, but my wife seems to think cast-iron is necessary for certain things (searing a prime rib roast, for example.).
After I figure those out, then I gotta figure out gas vs. electric vs. induction vs infrared…
I bet this works nominally better, but I just heat the pan with oil. I can’t be arsed to wipe screaming hot oil out of a pan only to reintroduce new cold oil and have to contemplate whether it could possibly make a difference and either feeling like an idiot for blindly following such an absurd direction, or like an idiot for not understanding the scientific grounds for which it works.
Under certain conditions, thin layers of oil polymerize and bond to a surface. It’s the same mechanism as cast iron, but smooth stainless steel holds onto the coating more tenuously than cast iron.