Some stuff I've done on a low stove has been on there for up to eight hours. I check the water level periodically but I'm not sitting in the kitchen for eight hours.

There's no set it and forget it. But there's plenty of things that don't require regular attention that enable you to go do other things around the house. Slow cookers, long roasts in the oven, smoking meats on the BBQ, long simmers on the stove. I make Christmas pudding most years and the recipe I use involves steaming the pudding for eight hours to cook it initially. Like fuck am I standing in the kitchen for eight hours watching a pudding steam. I get it going and then set an alarm to check on the water level periodically so it doesn't boil dry.

All that said I don't understand how people can't stay in the kitchen long enough to get a pot boiling. Or think they can leave anything going at high heat unattended for very long.