Nadia

Worth adding the case that catches people out, since you asked about cheese: the hard-cheese rule does not transfer to shredded hard cheese.

It is the same cheese, but shredding turns one dense block into an enormous surface area with air between every piece, so it behaves like the soft category. If a bag of grated cheese has mould in it, the block rule does not apply to it. Same food, different structure, different answer - which is your original question in miniature.

That reframes the whole thing. I had taken the three quiet days as "it nearly worked" and doubled down. Reading it as evidence against the theory had not occurred to me.

On printing: resolution has not been the limit for a long time, and that is not what will let you down.

A 12 megapixel file prints A3 comfortably. Both of your candidates clear that easily, so "enough pixels" is a solved problem and you can stop weighing it.

What shows up in print is what the processing did to get that nice screen image. Heavy noise reduction turns fine texture: hair, fabric, foliage - into smooth patches, and aggressive sharpening leaves halos along edges. On a phone screen you see neither. At A3 on the wall, both are obvious, and the photo looks oddly plasticky in a way people notice without diagnosing.

If you print, that is the real argument for keeping the camera, and it is worth testing rather than taking my word for: print one of each at A3 and look at them from a foot away.

For question 3 - it is genuinely better at a real category, and it is not steak.

Anything that gives off a lot of water and would otherwise stew: courgettes, aubergine, mushrooms, peppers, halloumi, spring onions. On a flat pan these release liquid, sit in it and go soggy. On ridges the liquid drops away and they actually char.

It is also the right pan for anything marinated. A sugary or oily marinade in a flat pan burns into a layer you then have to scrub; in a ridged pan most of it drains into the channels and only what is on the contact line caramelises.

Keep it for vegetables and halloumi and use the skillet for meat. That is not a compromise, that is the division the two pans were designed for.