I have a 1940s house with solid timber benchtops, yes they take a little more care (no hot pans) but from what I hear stone counters stain easily anyway. The nice thing about wood is you can just sand it back and refinish and it will look amazing again. Large slabs are pretty expensive these days so when installing a kitchen downstairs we went with finger jointed timber, was cheaper than stone and slightly more expensive than engineered stone.

Aesthetically they're ugly but stainless steel is probably the best in terms of cost, ease of maintenance and cleaning

The problem I had with wood countertops is that little area behind the sink that is almost always wet.

Either from your sponge, turning off the faucet with wet hands, or just splash back, it always is wet.

Then the wood gets moldy or rots or is disfigured.

My parents have stone. I hate it. Very noisy in a high pitched unpleasant way.

Engineered stone (what is being banned) doesn't stain either.

Anecdotally, we have laminate benchtops which have been in place for ~30 years (long before we bought the house) and they're pretty much flawless, despite being treated pretty roughly. We're having the kitchen re-done soon and will go with laminate again.

I’ve been in my house for 27 years, and the laminate is basically perfect still, with absolutely no special treatment. Incredibly impressed.

Never had issues with laminate, apart from maybe single discoloration patch due to marinate. But that is life. There might be some tiny nicks, but they really aren't that visible.

Just live if with after few years. Nothing stays perfect when you use it.

We have something that was called Laminex Freestyle 10-15 years ago. I think it's a resin blend? Where it cracked, we were able to have that small area replaced and remelted so the seams are not visible. It's white and cops red wine, turmeric, etc all the time and has resisted staining.

I've had weird good luck with concrete, it was poured thick enough that the weight was causing the kitchen to sag.

The house was being sold by flippers trying to dress up a kitchen with structural mold issues, they thought concrete would be a cheap way to hide the damage.

Concrete isn't silly at all. (Google it) I actually prefer it to most of the other options.

Isn't the problem with concrete that it's porous?

There's food safe concrete sealers.

The best alternative isn't even listed: stainless steel. There's a reason commercial kitchens prefer it.

It can also me cheaper, as you don't need a solid slab of it, a 1-3mm plate of stainless glued to MDF will do.

Laminate is functionally fine. There's plenty of kitchens out there with it. Just doesn't look as nice (which is really shorthand for expensive) as stone.

Why is concrete silly? Concrete is can be a high end material. I guess you could treat to to make it waterproof (it is used in the bare weather after all!)

Requires tons of sanding, similar issue as cutting the stone.

Granite countertops are cheaper, more durable and have better thermal resistance than artificial stone ones.

It is a little more mixed than that. Granite is generally cheaper and has better heat resistance. Granite is porous, so it stains and needs sealing every year or two. Quartz/artificial takes less maintenance, is a little stronger, so it is more scratch resistant.

A polished granite countertop has not pores. Most artificial stones use epoxy, scratches easily an easier to break.

Granite is porous and polished granite is porous. It has to be sealed to prevent absorption and staining. It has to be resealed periodically (annually or semi-annually) to maintain the protection.

Granite countertops can be radioactive, so we should ban granite countertops as well.

And produce plenty of silica and mineral dust.

Much less than artificial stones.

Citation please. With numbers.

Porcelain seems like the best option here.

For a benchtop? Sounds like one dropped pan away from disaster

You can chip them if you smacked the edge with cast iron but they don’t smash like glass. Would be cosmetic only. You can chip stone as well though so eh.

A small if any durability reduction seems acceptable for the health and safety improvement.