[makeitdouble]

Yes, it comes down to what people care about, and I'm sympathetic to not wanting to care much for people who don't enjoy cooking.

On consistency...I think it's just not possible. Even for super simple things like blasting something at 500W for 30 sec, we quickly realize that some microwaves ramp up faster than others, and at the same power they don't all diffuse the power evenly (flat floor microwaves are pretty different from the rotating plate ones for instance).

Doing trial and error for any new model feels like a fact of life, and I assume pros are more severe regarding properly knowing how their tool actually behaves, same way we'd benchmark a new computer to get an idea of its actual performance profile with our exact installation.