My lineup basically has 3 (or 4 if you're nitpicking) sets of pans / materials. I have 0 non-stick / for ever chemical crap pans.
-Carbon steel frying pans and what's basically a triple height frying pan (for deep frying), pretty much all the 3mm stuff from DeBuyer, in different sizes (24/28/32 cm). Mostly still used for non-stick purposes; main reason I have a lot is they were cheap and I got most of them before getting my stainless stuff. Technically there's a Darto in there too (the 35 cm paella) but that's mostly for oven purposes.
Carbon steel's main advantage IMO is that it's
cheap and for the handful of times you actually do want something that's somewhat non-stick (most stuff stainless does just fine). Other than that they're really nothing special, I think they're a bit overhyped at this point. Paying top money for 'high end carbon steel' never made sense to me; that's like buying high-end plastic plates.
-Enamelled cast iron; a 26 and 28 cm dutch oven and a 28 cm braisier, all from staub... The main use for these is stews and soups, especially since I tend to leave those in the pan for multiple days - something stainless doesn't necessarily take too kindly to. I think that's also their main raison d'être; from a cooking perspective I sincerely doubt you'd notice a difference in blind taste tests when comparing to stews and soups prepped in normal stainless stuff. I guess bread baking is a bit of a niche exception, but just about any cheap cast iron pot will do for that.
-Stainless stuff. And if you wanted to split hairs there's basically 2 groups here. I have all the 'cheap stuff'; the big pots (2x5l, 1x10l) for stuff like soups, boiling potatos, etc, and a bunch of 2l saucepans (mostly used for reheating, boiling small portions, that sort of thing).
Then I have the proper clad stuff, for where the performance really matters. Demeyere proline 24+28 (for meat work), Demeyere multiline 24+28+32 (for just about anything else), and recently I got a Demeyere ecoline 28 (curiosity got the better of me recently during a great sale, but also for convenience since the 28 is my most used size).
On top of that my sauciers; 2x Ikea Sensuell 24 cm. Sadly they don't make these anymore since they're some of the most versatile pans around - and there's no real cheap alternative. Eventually I'll likely end up replacing these with conical sauciers from the Demeyere Atlantis line, and I'll be adding 2x 20 cm models.
And then.... I'm ready to not buy pans anymore for the next 50 years.
I'd say probably close to 90% of my cooking is done in the Demeyere frying pans and the stainless sauciers. They just have the best performance and they're the most convenient no-fuss, 0 maintenance option.
Carbon steels is nice because it's cheap (and it's a good way to build some volume into your arsenal) but I wouldn't want to have a set with only carbon steel.
