Once I was dating a girl from Shanghai and I was cooking diner for us. We wanted rice so I started cooking it in a pot with a lid (no rice cooker) and she was flabbergasted. She told me she didn’t know you could cook rice without a rice cooker. So I asked her, what do you cook if the power is out? She said noodles.
The last time I made rice without a rice cooker was when I did not know about rice cookers and I plan to keep it that way.
My biggest issues with rice cookers is that they take longer to cook rice then a pot with a lid, they often have Teflon coated inserts, and they can’t cook pilaf or risotto.
I got a $700AUD tiger rice cooker for Christmas this year, best gift. The rice is so qualitatively different it’s insane, plus I’ve been cooking meals for my Gf every day since I’ve gotten it.
Sounds like capitalism problems
