What a crazy world we live in. Instead of finally upgrading your electrical system to something that can handle the 5kW needed for a high end induction stove, you buy a device with a battery that will probably need to be replaced in a few years and might turn out to be a huge fire risk.
How is that cheaper than running a few meters of copper cable?
- Installing a battery powered stove is probably less than 30 minutes of work, and the electrician selling it makes a lot of money from the sale of the expensive stove.
- Running a new cable from the kitchen to the distribution board will probably take two hours or potentially even more if there is a lot of furniture in the way, but the electrician will make a lot less money because they can't sell the expensive device.
So I think the answer is that battery powered stoves are just a more profitable product to sell, so that's why electricians push them instead of traditional devices.
Unions
If unions were the problem, you'd see a lot of individual contractors.