My head chef swore by cold searing steaks, I thought he was nuts for 2 years

Started at a new place in Austin about 14 months back. Chef Marco kept telling me to put the ribeye in a cold cast iron pan and let it heat up slow. I figured he was messing with me or just old school weird. I did it my way for months, hot pan screaming, good sear but the inside was always more done than I wanted by the time the crust came. One slow Tuesday I tried his method just to shut him up. Put the steak in cold, turned the burner to medium, flipped every 2 minutes. Took about 12 minutes total but I got this even pink edge to edge with a decent crust using way less butter than usual. I still dont do it for thin cuts but for anything over 1.5 inches I'm a believer now. Anyone else get handed a trick that sounded backwards and turned out legit?