I've only used one once in a holiday cottage
1. I was struggling to get it to work at first, but luckily the landlady popped round to check everything was OK, and she explained that it gets its knickers in a twist so you have to turn it off and on again sometimes ! Not a good start but not a disaster either
2 The touch buttons were mildly annoying but workable
3 Quite impressed with the controllability ... until I tried frying and later cooking steak. It simply would not heat up hot enough and the best you could get was hunting where it would be hot for a few seconds then cool, then hot again
I'm told good ones are better, but this one was basically shyte it you wanted to do any sort of searing or proper frying. I assume a griddle plate would be utterly hopeless
Another problem is we've accumulated an extensive selection of copper pans which would all need replacing. OK cast iron would be cheaper that the copper but they're even heavier and you'd lose the rapid response aspect.
I read here of a hob running off a 13 amp supply. That's about the power of a single small gas ring, so even allowing for the supposed extra efficiency, that is still pretty feeble. I think my big ring is 10kw. Some people here say it's OK if you don't run all the rings at once - I don't get that at all; may as well have fewer rings - is one or two really enough? And if so why have 4? Prompted by the thread I saw the induction version of my own cooker has 11kW for the 5 ringed hob, which is plenty
Why is induction claimed to be more efficient than normal electric? Power is power. The wastage in the resistance heating is surely just the heat capacity of the hob itself, so if you have to have a higher heat capacity pan like cast iron to make induction work, the gain must be modest.
Some of the above criticisms also apply to halogen hobs - not getting hot enough, and the dodgy controls, though to be fair they are quite reactive and don't need iron pans specifically
Anyhow, until I use a good one, I remain a skeptic
Edit: Also regarding holiday cottages, why oh why do they have over complex cookers where you have fanny around for ages trying to work out how to make it get hot like some puzzle to be overcome in Tomb Raider. My posh range cooker at home has one knob for each overln conveniently marked with temperature.