A few things. 1) It’s easier, you don’t have to watch them, just fill them and turn them on while you do something else. 2) The nicer models will hold the ric

A few things. 1) It’s easier, you don’t have to watch them, just fill them and turn them on while you do something else. 2) The nicer models will hold the rice at warm-but-below-boiling for a while before cooking because the rice comes out softer and tastier, especially healthy brown rice. 3) The thermostat isn’t used to detect absolute temperature, it actually monitors the rate of change/first derivative to decide when the rice is fully cooked. This makes the required ratio of rice:water much more lenient and cooks the same amount independent of the rice type/size.