I upbear all a’ this. Though enamaled cast iron isn’t too bad if you avoid all the stupid expensive brands, I can get pans ~$25 per. An often untold beauty of cast iron and steel pans is they both actually provide you nutrients - Cooking in cast iron meaningfully increases your iron intake, and steel gives you some iron and other trace metals you actually need.

I do about 90% of my cooking in two cast iron pans, and fully agree with your last point. I was very hesitant after all the chatter about upkeep, but in 3 years since changing to cast iron, I’ve only ever done one thing - handwash and dry it. Never seasoned it, nothin’.

I fry stuff, cook stews in 'em, tomato, omelettes, pancakes, scrape the fuck out of 'em, wash with mild soap when needed. These pans do everything for me, and all I do is keep 'em dry. The pan is still great at non-stick, no rust, works perfectly. I’m sure it must have its place, but from my perspective, seasoning is a scam.

My cast iron pan routine can be entirely summed as “After cooking, wash it by hand for 5-10 seconds with a chainmail scourer, then leave on the hob to dry with residual heat.”