Oddly enough, the microwave is the least used appliance in our kitchen. If it weren't for the fact that they are so cheap now as to be virtually free we probably wouldn't have one.
When the iPad gets to that same price point we'll probably get one as well.
I was in my previous apartment for 18 months and never turned on either the oven, or stove. I can't even tell you if it was plugged in.
The Microwave, on the other hand, was my magical baked potato maker and chinese-food/pasta reheater.
Of course, I've been in my current house for a little over a year, and don't believe I've ever heated up anything in the kitchen, so perhaps I'm an outlier.
That's why they call it a "casual computing device". Perhaps your use of the kitchen should be called "casual cooking" although even that might be over-stating it ;)
In yours maybe. In mine there's at microwave/regular oven combo which I use as an oven only when cooking cakes and pies or the odd dish requiring it. Electric stove for rumsteaks and pastas. The rest is microwave, microwave, microwave, cooking all sorts of liquids and vegetables. It is so much more energy and water efficient.
If you want to be energy-efficient, keep food hot by insulating it, not by continuing to heat it. Like in a hooikist. I can "soft-boil" a couple of eggs with a liter of nearly-boiling water from my hot-water heater, left in a thermos for half an hour.
Not unless you've sterilized it first. But putting food in an insulated container will only prolong its time in the zone between 40°F and 140°F if the temperature outside the insulated container is outside of that range. For example, if the insulated container is in a refrigerator, in an oven, on top of a cooking fire, or in a blizzard. So taken at face value, your advice is rarely applicable.
However, not all of that zone is equivalent! If your non-sterile food stays at 100°F for a long period of time, its decay rate will be much, much higher than if you keep it at 60°F. So a generalization of your advice is often applicable.
Which is precisely my use case. Me and my wife often eat small meals, sometimes even different for each of us. Many a time only one of us is at home for lunch and sometimes even for dinner.
Even when we cook larger quantities the 'traditional way' we end up heating them again the next day. Besides it's just outrageous to boil half a teapot for a singe tea cup when just filling the cup and popping it into the microwave.
When cooking vegetables with steam in the microwave we use a (provided) accessory with which you lay vegetables on a grid, fill the bottom with one glass of water, cover with a metallic lid and throw in a few minutes of power. A pressure cooker requires more water, a longer heat up time and a longer cooking time. It is also extremely bulky. We have one but never use it.
The only times when I wish for a microwave are when I am staying in a hotel room without one. Maybe tablets will replace the hotel brochure, the room service menu and the bible in the hotel rooms at some point?
I wouldn't like to give mine up; it's handy for reheating and other miscellaneous tasks. But I likely don't find it as essential as a lot of people do.
Except for the user interface (again, like tablets). Some still lack "add minute" buttons, or require you to press "Timed cook" or some such before you start typing in the time.
When the iPad gets to that same price point we'll probably get one as well.