Blasphemy! (As someone raised in the southern US)

In all seriousness, the biggest difference I've found in properly keeping up cast iron is using the right cleaning method.

Water. Or just a bit of highly-diluted dish soap.

I know there's ways to do proper coating (oven clean, etc), but most of the time I just hot fire mine on a gas burner with some oil. Works fine.

Also, there's no way in hell I'd cook cast iron on an electric top. (though I don't have experience with induction)

And finally... cook things with more fat. Bacon in the pan frequently goes a long way towards making it happy.