Consumer Reports can be a little misleading. There might be several reasons someone would like a prostyle range and some are performance related. -For one thing there is a lot more room front to back. I use big pans so appreciate that.

-You have the option of 36 and 48" ranges. There are a few inexpensive 36" ranges for $900 but the burners are like the simmer burners (9K BTUs) on the prostyle ranges. For 60", some people use two 30" ranges together but those are available too.

-You have many choices in burner. You could have star shaped, triple ring, dual stacked, uncapped. Some of these features provide better heat distribution for cookware that is not all that great in that way. If a burner is uncapped, the heat can go straight up. There are a few inexpensive ranges that do not have caps too. You could have 25K BTUs with an uncapped burner and more heat goes straight up. Some capped burners go up to 21K or so but they start getting a lot more flare so not as good for a wok or smaller pan.

--You might have an "open" burner tray, which some people like because it breaks down for cleaning. Others don't want to have to do that.

-The broilers on an all gas prostyle range are usually infrared which is a lot better than a regular gas broiler.

-You can have an option of a thermostatically controlled griddle if you want it built in and grill.

I would also consider getting a rangetop and a wall oven or two vs the range. You can pick the best burners, oven or a combi oven. A 36" oven is a lot more to heat up and may not be much bigger than your 30" range you have now. You have to look at the rack size vs the capacity listed in square feet. A lot can depend on rack placement and placement of the convection fan. Look at the height above the rack. Some 36" gas ovens in a range hold a full commercial baking tray or two half trays side by side. Some 30" gas ovens do too but it is tight. One electric oven does, BlueStar that I know of.

We have the Bluestar electric wall oven. It's been great, so convenient to not have to bend over to insert and remove trays. I use it in combination with an induction cooktop. I'd never go back to a range or gas anything.

For a good but not too fancy range, we loved our GE Cafe dual-fuel with a warming drawer. The middle oval burner was never used (not sure what it was for - had no power), but I loved the rest of it. This time around, I have the space and will be creating our long-term kitchen...I'm deciding between the BlueStar or Thermador double convection electric oven and the Wolf or BlueStar gas rangetop with six real burners.

I have a 36" BS RCS. It's a fantastic range. It doesn't get that much love here on GW b/c it's not as powerful as the other BS range options, but it has plenty of power imo. Searing, sautéing and simmering are all easy to do. The oven is huge, heats evenly and roasts and broils perfectly. I had a 30" range before and the extra 6" are great to have if you like to cook. Even if you think you'll never use more than 3 or 4 burners, you'll like having the extra space to set a pan from the oven down, or being able to have space when using a large pot or pan. My large pots and pans would crowd out nearby burners on my 30" range.