Either one is going to be good. Some folks here will have a preference for Wolf over anything Thermador and some will have a preference for having a grill and griddle. Are you located where having an indoor grill will be an advantage? Would you use it or grill outdoors? Are the things you would use a second oven for also things that will do well in a convection micro (smaller size as well as the type of cooking)? The convection micro may not be any larger than the second oven on a 48" range. When I was looking at appliances and planning, a lot of folks were talking about 48" ranges and how much they used the smaller oven and preferred using it so they didn't have to heat the larger one. Seems most of the most often used things could go in the smaller oven. They had me convinced, and I would have liked the look of a range, so I would have done a 48" if a range didn't place the ovens too low for me to work comfortably. In the end, I think you will need to consider your own cooking needs and see which one works best for you. Take a few pans to the store and see for yourself what fits in that smaller oven.

I purchased an entire thermidor kitchen. 48” grand pro range, hood, dishwasher, and side by side freezer and fridge. The first time I turned it on the oven burned my brand new cabinets and an error code comes on. Periodically the temp probe tells me to unplug it when it's not in fact plugged in. It's been over a month and the repairman says it needs a new motherboard. The company is insisting I just let them repair an oven that was delivered broken and is currently a fire hazard. Not sure about the rest of you but when an appliance is broken from day one - you they are duds for life. Being this is my new forever home I would rather it be replaced. Thermador has sent me and my distributor through multiple hoops, they tell her one thing and me a completely different thing. They sent claim forms to my new construction home (which isnt an official address). They were rude on the phone. I have never gotten to use my Thermador appliances but would never roll the dice with them again. Because if you ever have problems, they will not help you unless it suits them. What kind of company has so customer service or pride in their product they won't replace a broken fire hazard? If you are thinking about getting a Thermador...DON’T Bosch owns Thermador... I've owned Wolf/Subzero and they were ok. Had some minor issues after 7 years but worked well.

You absolutely want the griddle in the center -- especially if you "only" have a 36" range. It's the same reason why for our four burner 30" Bluestar, there is a 5" filler piece between the left and right burners. If you have big pots, things will otherwise just not fit at all. You need a little space in between, or you need to restrict yourself to small pots. This is particularly apparent, whenever you cook in a wok. Incidentally, this is one of the killer features of the open Bluestar burners. Part of the grates is removable and turns any burner into a wok burner. We love cooking with our wok. Unlike with capped burners, the star shaped burners put the heat into the center, so the wok works the way it's intended to do. You can push food up the sides of the wok, whenever you want to gradually decrease heat; and you can continue stir frying at high heat in the center. Also, the high sides of the wok minimize grease splatter in the rest of the kitchen. We use our wok both for Asian and for a lot of Western cooking. It fits perfectly on our 30" range, but if you had six burners in a 36" range, the front center burner would be partially blocked by the wok. Of course, if you put your griddle into the center, this is not a problem.

@r, I thought I would chime in here to just say that I don’t think you are “obsessing“ at all regarding the use of knobs in this case. One of the most crucial variables in any kind of industrial design is the way we interface or interact with whatever the product is. Most of us utilize capacitive touch controls or infrared type touch controls on a constant basis with everything from iPads, smart phones, as well as any number of house appliances. But I would suggest that your instinct regarding cooktop or rangetop controls makes a lot of sense. Consider the difference in using a wall oven versus a cooktop. Most cooks in the kitchen can get the opportunity to wipe their hands in order to use touch capacitive controls on a wall oven. Of course, the case could be made that turning a simple dial, can be more intuitive, then going through a series of menus to get to where you want to go, since in the end, the mission of the wall oven has not really changed very much since our grandparents time which is essentially to bake the cake or roast the chicken. The reason I suspect that cook tops and range tops, as well as ranges are a particularly good candidate for knobs is due to the fact that the controls are often placed on a horizontal plane. Many people, especially those who are new to induction appliances for example, have learned a hard lesson as the very sensitive touch controls do not always take kindly to steam, water, droplets, and oil or gravy splatters. It is not hard to imagine why this is problematic because if you put any of these liquids on top of your smart phone screen, you would discover that the touch controls that works so beautifully such as the ones I’m using right now on my iPhone to create this post do not take kindly to having these substances on top of them. There are lots of examples of folks who have touch capacitive controls on these horizontal locations where the entire appliance is either shut down or thrown off its game. Of course, the majority of modern products that have knobs do not use the analog/mechanical controls of knobs of the past, but are in fact, “knobs“ that interface with micro control boards behind them. Still, there is an entire field of design that studies user interaction, and I do think that, at least, in some instances, such as with cooktops, knobs actually, do make a lot of sense. One can certainly debate where the best location for those knobs would be to avoid getting splatters on them since Cleaning knobs is not exactly, a fun time for most folks. Some people would assume that installing Touch Sensitive controls in all sorts of consumer products that once used knobs, levers, and buttons, is simply a design trend, and I’m sure there is truth to that. But a little voice inside also suggests to me, that one of the reasons they have moved away from knobs and especially the electromechanical kinds used in the past, is due to the cost of manufacturing. I do not have a data set to support this theory, but if you consider the labour and the bewildering amount of copper wiring that went into something such as a 1950 electric stove, some of which had lots of extra features, you can begin to imagine the cost savings of having a micro “motherboard“ taking the place of all that complex analogue electrical structure. I truly enjoy all of the benefits and possibilities that I have with my smart phone, laptop, iPads, etc. But I do think your instincts for knobs are not without merit, because sometimes, appliance designers attempt to answer questions that no one ever asked. My two. Cents 🤔.