What? That sounds really strange. Do you have a browser extension messing with the page?
You can just use the search from the homepage. Typing "hotplate" gave autocomplete for "hotplate for cooking" which is hundreds of products: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=hotplate+for+cooking
Search and category browsing have different purposes. Search is not a substitute for a decent taxonomy. Unfortunately, MS (start menu) and Amazon seem not to realize that.
Search is better than category browsing... you can spearfish instead of cast a net. If you had typed “hot plate” into search, you would have avoided your entire frustration... you already knew what you wanted.
Amazons web site is a mess for sure, but finding a specific product is not one of those problems. The search is quite good...