The most common reason people give up on a stainless pan is that everything welds itself to the bottom. It is a fair complaint and it is almost always fixable, because sticking in stainless is a temperature and timing problem rather than a property of the metal.
Why it sticks
Stainless steel looks smooth and is not. At a microscopic level it is full of pores that open as the metal expands with heat. Put cold protein onto a cold or barely warm pan and it settles into those pores and bonds chemically to the steel as it cooks. Get the pan hot first and the fat fills those pores before the food arrives, so there is a layer between the two.
The preheat
Empty pan, medium heat, two to three minutes. Not high (high heat scorches oil and discolours the pan without making the surface any more usable.
The water test
Flick a few drops of water into the pan. If they hiss and evaporate instantly, it is not hot enough yet. If they gather into one or two balls of water that skate across the surface without evaporating, the pan is at the right temperature. That is the Leidenfrost effect: the pan is hot enough for the water to ride on its own vapour. This is the moment to add fat.
Then the food, then nothing
Add your oil or butter, swirl it, and put the food in straight away. Then leave it alone. Protein sticks hard when it first hits the pan and releases by itself once a crust has formed) usually one to three minutes for a piece of fish or chicken. If it will not lift when you nudge it, it is not ready. Every time you drag it across the pan you tear the crust that was about to free it.
Dry food, room-temperature food
Water on the surface of the food boils and drops the pan temperature, which is why a wet chicken thigh sticks and a patted-dry one does not. Meat straight from the fridge cools the pan more than meat that has sat out for fifteen minutes. Both help.
Do not crowd it
Every piece you add pulls heat out of the pan. Fill more than about two thirds of the surface and the temperature falls far enough that the food steams in its own liquid instead of browning, and steamed protein sticks. Cook in two batches.
The bit that stuck is not a failure
The browned residue on the bottom is fond, and it is the best part. Take the food out, pour in a splash of water, stock or wine while the pan is still hot, and scrape. It lifts in seconds and becomes the sauce. That is the reason to cook in an uncoated pan at all.