"What's the importance of having a 'bridge' feature on an induction cooktop?"

Convenience. Makes it easier to control the heat and makes it more likely to be more evenly distributed. Plus, see below.

" I could put a large grill/griddle pan over two burners and just turn 'em both on. Do Inductions not work this way?"

Some do, some do not. Some do not because the burners are placed in a way that makes it physically impossible to span a couple of similarly sized burners. In other instances, some manufacturers prohibit spanning/bridging in the owner's manuals. Other are fine with doing it. Only thing I can suggest is downloading the manuals and check.

Also, seems to me that there was some discussion within the last couple of years about burning spanning on some Bosch cooktops. You might try a search and see if anything turns up.

This post was edited by JWVideo on Thu, Apr 3, 14 at 15:06