I have a small coffee can sized wood stove and I find that I am using it less and less as the years go by. The main reason is that although the stove is handy, stopping to heat up water or lunch/dinner takes 2-3x as long as a similar sized gas or canister stove which will boil water in ~3 minutes in almost in any weather conditions I expect to find in my AO.

As for the reasons for a wood stove vs a open fire. The wood stove I have is faster and is self contained and can be fed very small pieces of wood which burns very well in the confined contours of the can. Whereas an open fire, you need to find a good spot for the fire, gather enough wood, build the fire, find a few rocks to balance your cooking pots etc then heat up whatever water or food. After this, the fire needs to be safely extinguished which requires water that is not always readily available...and without using your drinking water. By time you get through all this, the 10 minute break turns into twice as long.

The one glaring aspect of open fires is the ecological damage and blight they add to the landscape. In NA, there are not many backcountry hiking areas left that have not been visually scarred by the remmants of open fires. Around here, the .gov has slowly realized this over the years and has added properly designed open fire pits along or near many many trails that has drastically reduced the wanton damage to the eco-system.

With all the above said. In a true survival situation, a large, hot open fire is an extremely valuable resource and which your life and hope for rescue may ultimately depend on...