I linked to a site of one of the larger Capital dealers in the Northeast.

You can see a lot compare and contrast.

They are open burner proponents but sell the Precision as well. You can't accuse them of favoring a product they sell vs one the don't sell. Because they sell both sealed and open burner Capital ranges.

You can google "gardenweb " + "culinarian" or "open burner" to get a lot of threads with a lot of information on the subject.

Here is a link that might be useful: LINK

Simple answer is there is no real comparison in performance between the two. The culinarian is in a completely different league (higher) than its sealed precision siblings, and that is what justifies the much higher price of the cc.

Open burners are superior in 2 key ways

1st - because of the airflow of an open burner the flame heads up instead of out the sides at an angle. This translates into more heat into the pot, vs into the room.

2nd - easy service. you can easily open, disassemble and repair an open burner. If you aren't technically inclined this means less hours for a service tech repairing your range

The culinarian is one of the best (american range has a pretty solid open burner option as well) because it has a LOT of burner openings for flame to hit the center of the pot. Excellent heat distribution to the pan and excellent simmer