This mirrors my experience with alcohol stoves. My memories are of alcohol stoves working fairly well when it was warm and there was no wind or precipitation. They were a bit fiddly getting going and took a little longer to boil the water compared to gasoline but given time the water boiled and all was well enough.

In a cold gusting wind with misting rain, when you need it most, ignition was difficult and unreliable. Those times we got it lit the stove was weak as a source of heat compared to white gas and propane stoves in similar situations and prone to going out. Slow to boil in good conditions became an exercise in staring at water that refuses to get hot enough to make a cup of tea.

Then again some people claim to have nothing but good experiences with them. Even in difficult situations. Perhaps it is just a matter of people in my small group lacking the touch.

I may have got a hint as to how the alcohol users may make the units work in lousy weather. A friend recounted a tale and mentioned that he 'retired to the tent to make hot coco'. That might be the key. If they won't work in less than ideal conditions you find a place with favorable conditions. Deep beneath an overhang, or behind boulders that block the wind, or inside a tent. I guess if you really, really need that cup of tea then working a stove inside a tent isn't too much of a hazard. Is that what the alcohol guys do?

I've never run my Svea-123, the stove I have the most experience with, inside a tent. A bit under the edge of a rain fly or tarp a few times but never all the way inside the tent. White gas inside the tent always seemed like a bad idea. Alcohol seems a bit safer. But then again with the Svea-123 it handles a fair amount of wind and rain pretty well so there was never any need to move it inside the tent.