I would argue that this depends very much on the quality you're using. The better steel cut oats I get take nearly half an hour. The quick cook brands often- and it depends- have ingredients we don't want in our bodies. This doesn't take into account the very broad range of oats available, and the fact that they are not all nutritionally equal. For my part I cook a big pot on the weekend, warm up about a cup or so during the week with toppings. Keeps just fine, but you have lots of ways to dress them up as you say. My faves are blueberries, pumpkin seeds and bananas. My thought is, and it's just a thought, that looking carefully at the nutrition profile of the different brands of oats also makes sense. The ones I found that take longer to cook seem to have fewer chemicals in them.