You can cook stir-fries on a regular stove. Millions of people do it all the time. The food is delicious. Wok hei is wonderful, but is not the be-all end-all. Yes, you could make them in a skillet, but perhaps someone might still find it preferable to stir-fry in a wok.
Also I happen to think the wok is the best vessel for deep-frying, so no, I don’t need a high output burner if I want to use a wok.
Suit yourself, but really any cookware with sloping sidewalls makes it that much easier to slosh oil over the sides and potentially start an oil fire in the kitchen. I’ll stick to straight-walled vessels like Dutch ovens and casseroles for this task.
Ok, so you would have lost something then? 
Without having his book in front of me right now, I think the basic premise was that it was also created the adding the sauce on the (cooler) sides of the wok rather than in the middle.
In any case, yes you can use multiple other pieces of equipment to stir fry, including a frying pan. However, that wasn’t what we were debating - we were debating your statement that you can’t cook in a wok without a high output burner.
Since the distinguishing feature of wok cookery is wok hei, which cannot be achieved on low-output burners, I’d argue my point still stands. You’re certainly welcome to cook anything you wish in your wok, but there’s no inherent advantage to doing so.
Suit yourself indeed, though.
I don’t think the distinguishing feature of a wok cookery is wok hei. First of all, wok hei is related to a single cooking technique not the wok, second of all the wok is a versatile piece of cookware that stretches way beyond stir fry.
I am glad you’re happy with your high output burner, but the world isn’t as black and white as you’re trying to make it
You’ll only get at most 1-2 re-uses of oil when you deep-fry in carbon steel or cast iron. The reactive surface oxidizes the oil much more quickly, which is inherently wasteful. Enamel cast iron or SS would be a much better choice here.
And thin sidewalls (with low heat retention) are a detriment if you’re actually trying to maintain the temperature of the hot oil during the fry, which is often crucial to achieving the right texture.
You’re making unwarranted assumptions again.
You’re right that I’m assuming you have a high output burner yourself, but your statement was absolute around being able to use a wok without one
What’s that?
Temperature differentials that make it possible to move food away from the high heat zone
You could say the same about a Dutch oven, frying pan, saucepan, or casserole. It doesn’t mean they don’t excel with specific dishes. The wok excels at stir-frying, and is a compromise solution for most other tasks.
Which you would be able to achieve with either of the other shapes I mentioned. So again, what is lost?
Nobody is arguing that a wok is the best piece of equipment for every single technique. Your statement was that it could only be used for stir fry and with a high output burner.
Some of us would argue that it can be used for a lot of things. You’re the one that introduced the notion that you can only use something if it’s the best possible option for something.
I was quite specific about referencing a frying pan, which would not have the same degree of temperature differential on the sides because they’d be shorter
This is not correct. Please re-read my posts. You’re certainly welcome to use a wok to cook anything you like, but I fail to see the point of using one unless you can achieve wok hei during stir-frying. If you cannot manage that, you’d be better off using more traditional western shapes for your cooking.
I am not French but I think I know what it means…
Anyway - perhaps the mods need to move this discussion to a wok hei thread. Sorry OP 
You guys are talking across each other. You can cook Chinese on any hob, and a high-output hob is desirable because it’s easier/more likely to produce wok hei.
A useful parallel is pizza. Yes, excellent pizza can be made in a home oven, provided you’ve got a steel, manipulated controls for a long time, and maybe pimped the thermostat. But you’re unlikely to achieve Neapolitan-like results that a more powerful oven produces.
Can we go back to talking about Ferrari and driving them on straight roads with a speed limit of 80 mph?
