Agree. We have family 100 plus year old cast iron— the old heavy kind that were originally seasoned (the proper way slow in an oven) and never allowed to have water sitting in them, to pit them.
From the very first and over the years, the pans have a cover of black shiny seasoned baked in oil that creates a real non-stick surface. Black shiny surface that covers the pan bottom— no pores and no moisture can get through.
Memories of Nana cooking salmon croquettes at a low consistent even temperature-— getting wonderfully crispy.
That’s another thing— the cast iron pans of those days were evenly cast... heat is dispersed evenly across the bottom and sides.
“heat is dispersed evenly across the bottom and sides.”
If you pre-heat your cast iron pans in the oven, you will get heat evenly dispersed. My burners don’t heat evenly. I bought a laser thermometer and measured a 10” skillet when heated the stove. Temperature across the bottom of the pan varied as much as 30 degrees.