Or just drop $10-15k or an under the counter espresso machine.

https://modbar.com/system/espresso-av/

Sorry, was I supposed to eat them while they are alive?

There’s a toggle in the settings in Connect for that now.

Plastic tends to be the best, imo. I don’t even really worry to heavily about preheating when using my plastic v60. But if j. Brewing with my Stagg XF, I absolutely place the Stagg XF on top of my Stagg kettle as well while it gets up to temp. Though the Stagg XF does have the benefit of being double walled stainless steel, so it does a great job of keeping temp.