Very nice discussions from many people, especially @am47, @alexanderras and you.
Let me briefly share my thought. Most Chinese people use woks for stir frying. There several style of stir frying (I don’t know the best way to translate them, but they are: 清炒、爆炒、軟炒、溜炒 、煸炒、乾炒…) The one which requires very high heat we often see in restaurant stove is the Bao (爆). Wikipedia has a nice section about it: “In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the bao technique (Chinese: 爆; pinyin: bào; lit. ‘pop, explosion’) of stir-frying on a high flame was typical of cuisine from the northern Chinese province of Shandong.[1] The wok is first heated to a dull red glow over a high fire. The oil, seasonings, and meats are then added in rapid succession.”
To me, the biggest advantage of a wok is its shape allowing very session of food movement – absolutely not need for pan frying a piece of thick steak, but very useful for cut up and smaller piece of foods. The Bao technique mentioned by @am47 absolutely need something like a wok. On the other hand, a wok can also be useful even for low temperature cooking – as long as turning and tossing is important.
This got me thinking a relatively low temperature Chinese dish calls "Three -Nonstick ( 三不粘)
The dish need to be cooked at low flame, but the constant food movement and food pounding makes the wok a good choice.
