I have a Blue Star 36RNB with grill. I love it. Definitely faster than 30 minutes to get to 350. I am going to roast at 450 today and will try to remember to keep track of how long it takes to get there. What I love most about the range are the open star-shaped cast iron burners and the fact that the range has no electronics to break. It's hard to overstate how much I love cooking on these burners. It's just a completely different experience than my previous closed burner range. Cooking has become really fun. And the simplicity of the mechanical controls is wonderful. I can't stand all that electronic stuff. The oven is good. It is roomy and bakes evenly. The racks are nice. The broiler is awesome but too small. We have a grill though so I don't use the broiler much. We have a second smaller Miele speed oven that we use a lot when we don't need to heat up the big oven. It has those electronics, though....

Actually MUA is not required by Code everywhere, only some areas. Regardless of Code requirements, the OP needs to do MUA with 1200 cfms because that much suckage carries with it the risk of sucking back CO into the house, i.e. backdraft. It's a serious risk because with that much cfms pulling air out of the house, other exhausts will be pulled in, like from the water-heater, furnace, chimney and dryer vent. That backdraft is bringing poisonous carbon monoxide into the home. You can get away with no MUA with an exhaust that is 400-600 cfms and if your house is drafty and not a newer super-insulated house. But not at 1200 cfms. At 1200 cfms, cracking a window will not be enough. You will need to install an MUA system. Either add that to the expense of your renovation, or choose a different cooking setup. People not willing to install MUA is a main reason why people forego the 60" ranges and their exhaust requirements, and opt instead for a 36" rangetop and separate ovens.

I can't tell you what is best from what you said. There are so many styles of cooking. Some people use high heat a lot for stir frys while others are more the simmering type. Some people here say they are amateur chefs while others are home cooks. Some are cooking for two while others cook for 10 for three meals a day. Cookware can range from small pots to large 14" frying pans. Some people cook with cast iron or enameled cast iron while others have restaurant grade aluminum or heavy gauge copper. These vary a lot in their ability to transfer heat so vary in how evenly they heat. Most people these days seem to have some version of stainless which can be all over the place depending on the metal in the layers. The ranges that you are looking at are all very different in what they do and BS is very different from the others. You will hear people advise on this forum "open burners are the best" What does this mean? Manufacturers use confusing terminology. Several claim to have "open" burners which can be very misleading because they are not all talking about the same thing. Looking at the specific parts of the burner and using specific terminology will help you see what will help you. "Open" actually refers to the burner tray when it has an open area around the burner. The tray can also be sealed -or fixed to the burner. The sealed tray came about in the mid 1980s to keep spills from going down into the works of the range. At the same type the burners were capped to prevent food from going into the burner ports. Before that all gas burners were open. You can still buy very inexpensive open burner ranges. Some burners have a tray that comes very close to the burner but disassembles for cleaning. There are all kinds of variations now so it is important to use specific terminology so you understand what you are getting. BS has a pull out tray under the burners to make it easier to clean. People have very strong opinions sometimes either way about which is easier to clean. Wolf and Thermador are sealed so it is pretty straight forward. This shows how a BS is cleaned. https://youtu.be/3K2DR2ub1sA To understand the difference in how these burners relate to cooking, look at some of the aspects of design that give certain functions. In looking at burners, consider the BTUs, high if you like to stirfry or need to heat something quickly. Look at the low end of The BTU range of the burner if simmer is important. A lot of burners have higher BTUs now, but BS has a couple of things that affect how the heat is applied to the pan. They do not have a burner cap. This allows the heat to go straight up. This is what some people mean when they say "open". A cap causes more spread of the flame on highest heat. Wolf has a dual stacked burner so there is a little less of the flare because you really have two burners and the range of heat is spread over two burners. Another important design aspect is the shape of the burner. The BS has a star configuration which distributes heat over a greater area. This is the BS star burner top and Wolf on the bottom The star burner is an advantage in getting heat to the bottom of a wok or gives better distribution on cookware that does not distribute heat very well like cast iron, enameled cast iron or some stainless but the cookware must be sized to the burner to take advantage of the star configuration. If you have a ring burner, your cookware can also distribute heat if you have thick copper or aluminum. The burner ports are also aligned on the sides of the rays of the star so as you turn the burner up, the flame stays in a specific area. A ring capped burner will flare more on high heat. I have Wolf so this actually works well for me. I like that the burner flares because I use high heat on big frying pans. I also have heavy aluminum or copper so the star is not as much as a benefit for me. I don't really want heat toward the middle but others do. I would try to find "live" demo ranges and take some of your cookware and see how this will work with your pans. Here are some burners with different features. You can see why you need specific terminology rather than just the ambiguous term "open". Star capped burner sealed tray. Probably one of the widest burners on high heat. Thermador. Star shaped, uncapped burner, semi sealed tray in that it comes very tight to the burner but comes off for cleaning (American Performer) Capped burner, open tray, an (older Viking). They advertised this as "open". 23K, Triple ring, uncapped burner. Semi sealed tray. Capital. Advertised as "open" BlueStar actually has several types of ranges. In my order of preference. RNB-high BTU, 22K star shaped, open tray RCS, lower BTU, 15K, star shaped, open tray sealed burner, 21K BTUs, ring burner, sealed tray Platinum, highest BTU, and you can change out an overlay griddle tray for a grill. The oven is odd in that all the heat comes from the back and the convection never shuts off completely. There is also a brand called Big Chill that has a pro model made by the company that makes BS closest to the sealed burner model. https://bigchill.com/30-pro-range.html Another aspect of performance is the oven. Look at the broiler size. I don't know what you have now but most prostyle ovens have a gas infrared broiler. Much hotter than a regular gas broiler but often small. The Monogram has a reversing convection fan. One of the problems with a convection fan is that it can set up an air current that makes hot spots. Manufacturers deal with this by using baffles or two fans with varying degrees of success. The fan in the Monogram reverses periodically to avoid hot spots. Monogram and BS I believe will both hold a full sized commercial baking pan. Check out out the service available in your area on these different brands. Gas ranges have a lot less to go wrong but still might need service. I like the American Performer range but users here have reported poor response from the company on warranty issues. Wolf is great for the two year warranty period but after that, you have to use their people and the cost is determined by Wolf. No competition.

@Landen Huey There are always pros and cons to every kind of burner or oven and what is a positive for one cook may be a negative for another. I have used both gas and electric ovens for more years than I care to admit to. Unfortunately there is no one universal best. Gas ovens with the exception of the infrared broiler on the higher end ovens and maybe lighting a different way haven’t changed all that much over the years. On the other hand electric ovens have. There really isn’t a simple electric element anymore except on the very low end. They no longer have an open element on the bottom, which changes the way some things bake. It is also probably the source of many problems with enamel chipping. They use computer boards to control the direction of heat from 3-4 elements cycling them on and off and they control fan speed and direction. There are some brands That you can never shut the convection off all the way. You can imagine it can be hard to get all that just right. In some cases the gas oven might be much more accurate than some electric ovens. I have an Electrolux oven which is spot on and heats very evenly but it has had issues with the blue enamel shedding as well as complaints here about the computer boards. I have a Wolf DF and it is not as accurate. It lags and if you turn the temperature up, you have to turn it off and back on again. There are some electric ovens that advertise very tight temperature control but that is only if you never open the door. The manufacturers also advertise “true” or “European” convection as evening out the heat, when many actually create hot spots. On the very epitome of control you have the CSO that also controls the humidity in the oven. All of these things can make some ovens more vulnerable. Aside from those issues gas and electric ovens function differently. Gas ovens have large vents because you need to vent the products of combustion. This gives you more heat and moisture in the kitchen. If you are steaming bread, it is hard to keep the steam in the oven though. Many people think has gas is moist heat but you have to look at the oven as a whole. The drier oven cavity promotes quicker browning so it is great for roasting. Electric ovens start with a dry heat source but because they have small vents, they hold onto moisture from food. This is good for baking anything that needs to rise. You can turn the convection fan on if you need better browning. If you would go with Wolf, I would try to get the current model. They are changing the DF range to have the fans in the corner like the M wall oven. This sets up air currents on the sides so hot spots. It won’t have convection bake mode either which is a slower fan so a little more gentle. This is the most usable conv mode on mine. I would guess it will have the replaceable bottom like the M so it can be repaired if the blue chips.