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Boiling is effectively a cooling process.  Generally speaking, pure water changes from a liquid into a gas at ~100C under 1 atmosphere of pressure ("sea level").

It's pretty rare that people actually boil pure water on their stovetop.  Usually they're boiling water with dissolved gases and solids, although for purposes of this conversation let's set that aside.

In any case, at higher altitudes (lower air pressures), water boils at lower temperatures.  And at elevations below sea level (i.e. higher air pressures), water actually boils at a higher temperature.

We usually boil water for one of two reasons: either to kill whatever is in it (since boiling temperature at most altitudes will effectively deactivate anything in the pot pretty quickly) or to create a ~100C environment to cook pasta or some such thing.  Usually these temperatures don't actually need to be that locked in, although some cooking methods rely on hot air rising (as bubbles).

As far as cooktops go, some cooktops cannot emit enough energy to rapidly boil water (i.e. aggressively push the water just past the boiling point).  This can create problems when cooking recipes which rely on the aggressive transfer of heat.  Foods rarely need temperatures anywhere near 100C to cook thoroughly, but recipes often do need higher temperatures (or more aggressive heat transfer) to cook quickly.

In a nutshell, people complain about weak cooktops mostly because it can limit the kinds of recipes they can cook, the rate at which they can cook food, etc.  And in extreme cases, some cooktops really aren't good at heating anything of substantial mass (as that potted mass may be losing too much heat just be being out in the ambient environment).

BTW, on @Laurentius's point, my Control Freaks can boil more than 3 quarts of water without a problem.  They top out around 1600W-1700W.  But I'm also using highly-conductive pans, so perhaps that makes a difference.

One last note: if your cooktop has weaker heat output, using a pressure cooker-style pan may help assuage the situation.

Boiling is effectively a cooling process.  Generally speaking, pure water changes from a liquid into a gas at ~100C under 1 atmosphere of pressure ("sea level").

It's pretty rare that people actually boil pure water on their stovetop.  Usually they're boiling water with dissolved gases and solids, although for purposes of this conversation let's set that aside.

In any case, at higher altitudes (lower air pressures), water boils at lower temperatures.  And at elevations below sea level (i.e. higher air pressures), water actually boils at a higher temperature.

We usually boil water for one of two reasons: either to kill whatever is in it (since boiling temperature at most altitudes will effectively deactivate anything in the pot pretty quickly) or to create a ~100C environment to cook pasta or some such thing.  Usually these temperatures don't actually need to be that locked in, although some cooking methods rely on hot air rising (as bubbles).

As far as cooktops go, some cooktops cannot emit enough energy to rapidly boil water (i.e. aggressively push the water just past the boiling point).  This can create problems when cooking recipes which rely on the aggressive transfer of heat.  Foods rarely need temperatures anywhere near 100C to cook thoroughly, but recipes often do need higher temperatures (or more aggressive heat transfer) to cook quickly.

In a nutshell, people complain about weak cooktops mostly because it can limit the kinds of recipes they can cook, the rate at which they can cook food, etc.  And in extreme cases, some cooktops really aren't good at heating anything of substantial mass (as that potted mass may be losing too much heat just be being out in the ambient environment that the cooktop is able to overcome).

BTW, on @Laurentius's point, my Control Freaks can boil more than 3 quarts of water without a problem.  They top out around 1600W-1700W.  But I'm also using highly-conductive pans, so perhaps that makes a difference.

One last note: if your cooktop has weaker heat output, using a pressure cooker-style pan may help assuage the situation.