Obligatory TechnologyConnections reference - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yMMTVVJI4c
TLDR: in US it takes 2 minutes more :). Is that difference that noticeable IRL?
Being compelled to wait two minutes more to boil a kettle for a cuppa would be enough to provoke an armed rebellion.
Not even sure I'm kidding.
(Or it goes into a teapot for brewing, and again needs to be just off the boil for that)
Given that we can boil a kettle for a mug's worth of tea in not much more than half a minute, there's no reason to use them, I think.
The reason Americans don't have a super fast boiling kettle is that very few Americans WANT a very fast boiling kettle for large portions of water. If an American wants a cup of tea, two minutes or less in the microwave is sufficient. I don't care if you think that's bad, because I want a cup of tea, not some elitist purity contest.
And tea in the UK has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with "elitism", which is something you projected onto what I said for your own reasons, I guess. The very opposite: tea serves the same function as coffee does in the USA, cutting across all class and status.
In fact the kind of tea you drink in the USA tends towards being what people here would call "posh" tea, because you drink the more unusual, expensive stuff as infrequent drinkers. Most of what we drink is robust and cheap.
Americans find our tea to be the same way we find your coffee: a distinct culture and taste that is acquired, not instantly loved.
(We'll leave it to the Aussies and New Zealanders to talk to you about your coffee; they came over and fixed ours.)
But I am reminded that it is foolish to try to convey a point in a humorous way on Hacker News.
On demand hot water, from the safety of your combat vehicle, is a genuine war innovation on the same level as canned food. Especially now that combat vehicles are aiming towards having more robust electrical systems makes it trivial to implement. Hot water means hot food, means warmth on a cold day, means sterilizing sketchy water sources without chemical tablets, means you don't have to light a visible fire to make your coffee, means you keep morale way higher. Your troops are now cleaner, better fed, happier, more motivated.