Ok, honestly, is cast-iron really any better than a non-stick, stainless, copper (anything else?) pan?
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....
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The reason cast iron is useful for searing a big cut of meat is that it has a reasonably high specific heat capacity (less than aluminum, more than copper, similar to steel) combined with considerably more mass than typical cookware made of other materials. It takes longer for the meat to cool the pan, so more heat transfers into the outer surface of the meat.
Cleanup of properly seasoned cast iron should be about as easy as non-stick pans because the seasoning (polymerized cooking oil) is, in fact a non-stick surface. Contrary to popular belief, it's fine to use soap on it, but aggressive abrasives can strip the seasoning. Fortunately, that's not hard to fix.
This. A cast iron pan just stores so much more heat than anything else. IDK the sciency chef-talk but if you like meat to look crusty and golden on the outside but tender on the inside then this is the way.
I basically just completely disregard any bullshit "seasoning" advice, and I've never had any rust or whatever. I don't scrub it with steel wool or whatever but I don't scrub anything with that. Sometimes I put a few cm of water in it and let that boil off any crusted on whatever.