Chuck, you need to narrow this down some - in particular, how much are you willing to spend? And how hot is "HOT"? You might also want to look into induction.

Don't know your budget, but I am on propane and am loving my new Bluestar. I fretted a lot about the decision given the maintenance issues posted on this forum, but so far am thrilled I decided to go this route. The burners and oven are fantastic and it is a breeze to keep the exterior clean (haven't had to clean out the interior yet).

To answer some q's -- price is not really a problem.
We are retired with adequate resources.

How hot? I want to be able to boil water quicker
than on the electric -- with no huge lag time. I
do pizza (500?) and crusty continental loaves
(450-500), and we saute mixed veggies etc.

When I turn the heat down, I want it to go down.

While I would love to do this for $400 (right!), I
can easily see close to $2k.

But ... I do not want to be replacing a bum logic board
in a year for $500 either. What I want is an old Roper
the way they used to be, I guess.

It's called modern technology, best rated gas range over the last ten years is the Hotpoint RGB745