Title says it all.
I don’t really care about price as I only need one frying pan. That said, all the Hexclad reviews I’ve seen don’t really justify $130-ish price tag.
Thanks for any suggestions.
Very well-seasoned cast iron.
Yep. 
If I could only have one, I’d go with cast iron as well.
I haven’t figured out the secret seasoning technique that makes my cast iron non stick. It’s a Lodge though, and people on this board are telling me Lodge sucks. So I blame Lodge.
A well-seasoned cast iron frying pan is a thing of joy, but I can’t keep mine that way: the seasoning starts out great but rapidly degrades until I’m down to bare metal alternating with patches of stuck food. I can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong.
You’re not cooking enough bacon.
More broadly, frying stuff in your pan will reinforce the seasoning. Simmering acids will wear it down (but not make it explode into shards like some people would have you believe).
When the first metal alloys that were quasicrystals were discovered, someone thought their combination of hardness and comparative non-stickiness would make great cookware and it was actually marketed under the brand Cybernox. Unfortunately it turned out to have poor corrosion resistance and it’s no longer made.
I have a ten-inch Oxo Good Grips non-stick pan that’s described as not having PFOA.
The Hexclad is a gorgeous looking pan, but really isn’t as non-stick as touted. I like it well enough for many things and is definitely easier to clean than stainless steel, but it’s not nearly as good with eggs as my true non-stick pan. This one is probably overkill, as most people say to get cheap-ass nonstick pans, but it’s held up well for me for several years with no signs of wear and still slides eggs around like crazy.
You need to have the right relationship with cast iron to maintain the non-stick aspect. It’s non-stick because some of the atoms from fat molecules bind to the iron. But cooking certain foods and washing with soap cause those atoms to be lost. If you cook fats a lot in cast iron it will stay non-stick because that refreshes the non-stick aspect, but otherwise you will have to properly re-season it to replace the lost atoms that made it non-stick.
Personally, having used both, I think carbon steel pans are better than cast iron. They require the same seasoning and care but are lighter and more responsive to heat. I used to use cast iron before I bought a carbon steel wok that was at a ridiculous discount. After using it I bought a couple of different size skillets.
Here ya go, $135 for the set.
Had mine for 2 years so far and still great. Keep it out of the dishwasher and don’t go at it with a scouring pad. Use wood or plastic utensils. Basically, be nice to it and it will return the favor.
Caraway. They’re chemically inert, look nice, and fairly robust.
But it’s so heavy. I like to toss/flip food around and doing that one-handed is tough with cast iron.
Caraway is not the right option for a person that wants light and flippy.