I don't know about what's better but a seasoned quality cast iron pan is very adaptable to fast dry cooking, cooking meat over a bed of salt, searing, browning/caramelizing onions, slow cooking veggies in butter, steam cooking, cooking over coals.
Give me my cast iron pans of all sizes any day of the week and ya can keep the fancy pans with their non stick coatings and all kinds of other stuff. I love em and learned to love em from my Mom.
I don't know about what's better but a seasoned quality cast iron pan is very adaptable to fast dry cooking, cooking meat over a bed of salt, searing, browning/caramelizing onions, slow cooking veggies in butter, steam cooking, cooking over coals.