They cost practically nothing when you consider that you can't ever wear one out.

They sell for super cheap at Asian grocery stores. I got one for like $35 CAD.

Edit: Oh actually although cheap, the ones you find at asian stores will mostly be woks which dont work well unless you have a gas stove so keep that in mind.

Your not supposed to season stainless steel pans, it doesn't work like that, just preheat it for a bit and do the water drop test to confirm before cooking, you will still have a little bit of sticking, but that's how you get the tasty brown stuff. I was gonna buy a carbon steel pan for backup but I didn't feel like dealing with the worry about seasoning and potential rust if not seasoned after use

I probably already read that and forgot because of the aluminum

I have a cast aluminum lefse griddle that I use for almost everything. I've had that for a couple of years and use it nearly every day, sometimes twice a day. When it comes to cleanup, I throw cold filtered water on it while it's still hot, scrape anything left with my metal spatula, and then wait for it to heat up again before shocking it again with cold water and wiping it down with a bar towel. Once a year, I use actual soap or cleaning solution to get any grime off the bottom or the edges.

I also have a cast aluminum caldero that I mostly use to make corn bread, but I might use as a dutch oven or whatever. Cleaning is similar: hot, splash, scrape, hot, splash, wipe.

Just raw cast aluminum getting the shit abused out of it, and it keeps working like a charm.