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I believe it is a quite common culinary technique. Searing meat (The Maillard Reaction ) prior to cooking through by slower cooking.

It does require high temperature. Recipes frequently suggest browning only small quantities of meat at a time, so as not to lower the pan temperature.

After searing, deglazing the pan with a small quantity of red wine, inevitably chills a hot pan! (I like to cook Italian, so a glass of Chianti usually goes into pan after searing meat.)

Over the years, even my cast iron skillets, which have thick bases, have bases which have bowed.

I guess this has been caused by the temperature cycling that I have described. The dome in the pan base makes it difficult to avoid burning anything more delicate cooked in said vessel.

I have just bought replacement cast iron skillet, and have opted for the rather expensive (USA manufactured) Lodge brand.

People register enthusiastic comments about Lodge, though I do observe the cast iron is NOT as thick as that employed in my previous pans from Aldi.

Do you think bowing of the base is inevitable when pans are used for this (common) culinary practice?

Maybe I need to accept it, and reserve a pan for such use, and resign to it needing replacing at regular intervals. For now, will keep one of the old (bowed) cast iron skillets for meat searing!