I had a brand new sink when I moved in to a recently renovated apartment 3 years ago. It's a nice large sink with white enameled finish (I think it's enameled metal, doesn't look to be porcelain).

Trouble with it is that from the beginning of using it, it's been super prone to staining and scuffing, the latter from pans, the former from any soaking plates. I can remove the staining gradually with bleach cleaners and some scrubbing--it's mostly due to the silicone protector, which is also difficult to keep clean. I can remove the gray surface scuffs that happen easily and occasionally just with gentle sponge rubbing of the surface.

But by far the worst are small particles that just lodge themselves in the surface of the sink and don't come off except when employing very harsh cleaners (like Lysol Lime & Rust and a lot of mechanical scrubbing with a soft sponge for 5-10 minutes).

For instance if I wash a cast iron pan and any tiny bits of iron oxide chip off from the seasoned coating of the pan, many tend to just stick to the bottom of the sink. If I don't very quickly wash the sink with soap, the particles attach themselves so strongly I can barely get them off even scraping with a fingernail. What's more, brown (rusty?) stains grow around them. As I had mentioned, Lysol Lyme & Rust eventually gets these out, so the sink looks like new again, but it's a lot of effort and harsh chemicals used.

I've been using a silicone sink protector to avoid scuffing the sink, and though it helps with the scuffing, it promotes staining and prevents the bottom of the sink to be clean so more and more stuff adheres to it. I don't have time to keep this very large sink crystal clear of oil residue every single day, so the cleaning of the sink itself happens every 3-4 days, and here's an example of what I uncovered underneath following leaving a pile of dishes in the sink for 2 days and after cleaning a cast iron pan. Back to scrubbing that now with Lime & Rust and a sponge.

Here you can see a couple of long gray scuffs from... I don't even know what, it scuffs so easily. The silicone protector normally over the surface is temporarily shifted for this photograph. But the rusty spots require a lot of extra effort. I can even feel their texture if I run my finger over them.

Anyone have recommendations for how to deal with the bits of rust more easily or discouraging this adhesion and stain development?

I basically cannot wash my cast iron pants in my kitchen sink, or you can see above what will happen, unless I take great care with the sink right away. My only option is to wait until my sink is completely empty of all other dishes and do an immediate deep cleaning of the sink as soon as I'm done with the iron pans.

I dearly miss my stainless steel kitchen sink from my previous apartment. It may have had lots of micro scratches from years of use and cleaning, but none of these ugly problems. It didn't need a silicone protector either. It was very easy to keep clean every day. Now my routine is greatly extended: not only do I wash the dishes, but then I also need to regularly spray the silicone mat with a Chlorox bleach spray to keep all the slimy black mold stuff from growing, then de-stain the sink underneath and clean off any grease.