I've used induction stoves at friends' places and at AirBnBs and I've always hated them. Possibly I just need to spend more time with one to learn it. They're super fast at boiling water, yes, but whenever I've frying stuff it seems extremely picky about alignment and eventually starts beeping at me and shutting off. I also had lots of difficulty picking a perfect power level, which is trivial with gas. The granularity in the digital controls seems too poor, or it has something to do with the thermostat not having direct contact like it does in an old electric stove?
The biggest issue though is every IH stove I've used has had touch controls on the top glass panel which means if you have any spills or overflow, you can't even turn it off.
We love our induction stoves, but definitely have had issues finding ones that have good controls. A lot of the cheap units don't have much granularity in heat settings, but the higher end ones have gas-like, nearly continuous options. All of them, high and low end, seem to be suffering (like cars) from some of the modern UX theory that if something can possibly be a touch screen it should be.
We've settled for a unit that has physical, clickable, tactile buttons to control the temperature and a numeric readout that clearly states the current temp and all controls on the side, away from spills. I'd love to find an induction stove with a plan old knob for each hob though.
Maybe I don’t cook enough, but your biggest issue is one I never face. A) I very rarely have any spills, and B) when I do, they’re never so much that they cover the controls (which are at front and center of stove, and not by the burners themselves, which is the way mast are designed).
Just seems like an odd issue for it to be your “biggest” turnoff from induction.
The biggest issue though is every IH stove I've used has had touch controls on the top glass panel which means if you have any spills or overflow, you can't even turn it off.