Congrats on "filling up the set" Mudbug!
I am NOT a tea drinker, on the other hand, my forbears were...sohere are a few thoughts for you...
"Water" cannot get hotter than 212F/100C without it becomes steam, right? (With pressure, you can get steam hotter, but thats not the issue here)
Anyways, if/when you pour your "boiling water" into a "cold teapot", the temp of the water is "significantly reduced" as the heat comes out of the water and goes into the teapot itself, right?
Therefore, the Urban Legend is "validated", that you should swish a couple cups of boiling water thru the teapot just to heat it up, before you put in your teawater and/or tea....
Being, of course, a "barbarian", and never having been to Kansas, most of us up here in the Great White North will use "teabags" to make tea...in order not to have to strain the tea of its leaves or suffer "fortune-telling" leaf patterns in the bottom of the teacup (about the size of this issue!), I have always tossed the teabag(s) into the boiled water and judged when to remove them by the colour of the infusion resulting...stirring them if/when necessary, (and, sigh, alas, "no" I don't have the taste sense to taste the "paper" of the teabag, or the coffee filter, come to that!)...on the other hand, I can produce the "colour" of the tea I am making, and "shut it off" at a predicted point...
Its interesting how the pro chefs have their advice on the matter, but again, doubt that that many of us have the "palate's" to say which is better or worse, or the cash to buy what's all that fresh or aged...if it tastes good to you, go for it, in my own opinion...
Lifter