Instead of arguing, why don't you educate? You're clearly passionate about this issue. We've covered the importance of thin carbon steel. Why is the round bottom so essential that without it we can't call it a wok?

> Why is the round bottom so essential that without it we can't call it a wok?

you need the round bottom to be able to scoop up the food and churn it. Try using a spatula on a flat bottom "wok" and flip the food to churn it - it doesn't work very well.

There's also an edge between the flat bottom and the round sides. This causes food to get "stuck" there under high heat - leading to burning. A wok is round all the way, so the spatula scrapes everywhere evenly, and you leave no burnt bits.

A flat bottom "wok" is just a pan with high edges.

From another part of the thread:

> Easy tossing for stir fry is just one feature of a wok. For example, the round bottom causes liquids to pool in the center.

kenji just released his new book (700 pages) on woks. while OP is correct about the heat deltas, it makes no difference in practice if you have the right technique. if you want to dispute that, you're going to be disputing someone who wrote a book about this over 4 years and made thousands of recipes.