Oh, I have to push back on one thing here. The fast heat drop you loved on that gas range is actually the flame itself cutting out, not the pan cooling down, because the metal holds heat just as long either way. With induction, the pan also stops getting energy the second you kill the power, but the pan stays hot for a while, same as it would on gas. So what you felt was likely just the open flame being easier to see and control, plus a cast iron grate that does not glow and stay hot like an electric coil. Glad it worked out for you during that storm, though, four days without power in Buffalo sounds rough.

Curious what your afternoon window actually looked like. Was it a shift change thing, or just when the warehouse gets slammed and people rush? Also wondering if you tracked which stations the errors came from too. Might be the layout, not the clock.