After giving some thought to these posts, I think we are looking at our own situations and thinking our preferences are ideal. Maybe for us they are, but there are a lot of cooks with other priorities, and the best way of cooking things is not always the best way for people to cook. I'm retired, as many of the posters here are, and we have the time and inclination to find the best way of cooking things.
Meet my daughter, a working mom with a toddler and an infant. Her primary cooking tools are a slow cooker, an Instant Pot, and a rice cooker. All set and forget appliances, so she can tend to the kids. We had a family gathering in December, and I had to chuckle when she was telling her cousin (another working mom) that she needed an Instant Pot and a rice cooker. Just about any home cooked meal is healthier and more nutritious than the alternatives, not to mention the cost factor.
I do agree that crock pots are excellent for "dump cooking." You dump a bunch of ingredients in the crock pot, and walk away. The same is probably true for the Instant Pot -- I don't know, since I don't have one.
I'm not retired, and I do all the cooking in my house. But, in fairness, I also don't just cook to fill my belly. As I have said before, cooking is a nice escape from my work, and other stressful things. So, I'm not much into short cuts.
So, yeah, if feeding the family with as little involvement as possible is the goal, a crock pot is a great cooking appliance. So, I agree... to each his own.
I guess that the point I was trying to make, and I think others were trying to make, is that a cast iron DO can do pretty much everything a crock pot can, and more. It can even do "dump dinners," if that's what you want or need to do.
To me, a cast iron DO is more of a multi-tasker than a crock pot. But like I said before, I have nothing against crock pots, or more accurately, people who use crock pots. I just prefer a cast iron DO, and don't mind telling people why I prefer them -- no offense is ever intended.
CD