I wouldn't simmer an acidic sauce in cast iron for hours, but this is poor advice. Deglazing will not damage the seasoning on cast iron pan once it is properly seasoned (and maintaining that is easy, contrary to lots of what you hear).
Unlike to your experience, I don't find them functionally equivalent for a number of things, which is why I have both (and enamel cast, much better than almost all clad steel dutch ovens that aren't really expensive, as most of them don't clad far up the sides)
I have both, and I use 5-ply fully clad more than I use cast iron. My 9 qt is bottom clad only, but the lack of clad up the sides hasnt been an issue. The bottom surface is hot which is what needs to be hot on the stove. The sides arent getting hot spots in the oven, during brazing and stews.
https://www.calphalon.com/cookware/cookware-by-product-type/...
I did once ruin a seasoning making a tomato sauce, which was a way to learn about acidic interactions - but that was over hours.
FWIW I had a 5 qt like that calphon but found I was always using my enamel cast one instead, so gave it away.
One thing I really like about the cast iron skillit is you can treat it roughly and use it anywhere. Mines been in fire pits, on bbq, stovetop, oven, even a bread oven. Handles temperature changes without issues (unlike enamel and some clad) is unbeatable to sear things. Doesn't care what tools you use in it. Nonstick property is pretty good (better than steel pan, worse than teflon) and will still be pretty good in 20 years.
Deglazing itself is a very fast process, usually seconds. If you are doing something over an hour, it's likely simmering. If you did that in a sauce that was still acidic (rather than had some acid thrown in to deglaze or whatever) then I could see that being a problem.
I'm not super careful about not using acidic things in cast iron, and I do deglaze in it on occasion, it's just a little harder imho. I can see how my original comment reads.
Metallic taste/smell in beer is a pretty significant fault traced to untreated wwater, old equipment, or lipids in the malt.
There’s lots of stuff in Hoegaarden (and witbiers in general) that can be unexpected or off balance (e.g. coriander, lactic acid, orange zest).
Metallic, at Hoegaardens scale, would be quite unexpected
Oh, and if a tomato or anything else somewhat-acidic touches it then the entire dish will taste like blood. So that's fun.
It's alright for cooking steak (preheating for a few minutes on high is a must, though, it's gotta be terrifyingly hot or everything will stick, including steak), and if I drown things in scorching-hot oil or fat (say, from bacon) they they don't stick much, but that sure isn't healthy. The pan has zero inherent non-stickness, only what it acquires from whatever lake of oil I put in it.
Screw babying it. Get a chain mail cleaner for it (and you definitely can use soap), use the pan often and especially when you’re doing something oily, and soon enough you’ll use it a lot.
And iron leached into whatever your eating. I know thats considered in the myth category, but I have at least one dish Ive prepared that ended up tasting pretty metallicy. Could be expectations manifesting reality.
I think people get turned off to steel when they put a new pan on the stove, dont let it heat up, bake something to it, and its an arm and a leg to clean the first time. Unlike nonstick, it has a bit of a learning curve. Cast iron doesnt show stains the same way, and you can use a chain mail scrubber. Scratching steel does slightly change its nonstick properties, so dont use steel wool.
When I'm searing something, I even prefer that it sticks slightly more to the stainless as it typically releases when it's done anyways -- and my anecdotal experience is that I get a better sear from the surface of the meat sticking to the skillet more firmly.
Cast iron gives additional radiant heat because it's black, so if I am cooking steak in the oven I pretend like it gives me more uniform temperature increase than depending on conductive and convective heat. If I am browning meat and not baking it after, Ill use steel.
I like cast iron for potatoes too. Hashes. Not sure why. Holds temp better?
Carbon steel is great, requires a little upkeep, but part of what makes it great is how it works with a really high heat source; the stoves in a restaurant behave very differently than your home one.
An extreme case of this is woks. There is very little you can do at home to reproduce the effect of an 80k BTU burner and a carbon steel wok.
Anytime you are cooking something acidic, tomatoes, vinegar, wine. I try not to deglaze meat brownings into sauce in cast iron.
A stainless steel dutch oven is a great universal pan as well. For a "first pan" I'd probably suggest tri ply stainless over cast iron. The main thing I like about cast iron more is the pan temperature not dropping when I put something on it, so its great for reverse searing baked steaks inside the house. Most other things I find functionally equivalent in stainless and cast iron, including browning meat before I cube it or break it apart. (brown cuts of meat and ground meat whole!)
https://www.target.com/s/tri+ply+clad?Nao=0
https://www.walmart.com/search/?query=tri%20ply%20clad