My 'other' option has to be the Epigas Alpine. Unless there were other stoves before this one using screw replacement cartridges then Epigas broke the stranglehold Camping Gaz had on small stoves. The rest is history. Other than that 111 in place of 00 or Valor, either of which I've found faultless.
I love my Nova, no jets to fool around with, multifuel, pot support goes all the way into the center for a variety of cooking pots, cups etc and simmers like a champ.
It's nice you haven't had to fool around with your Nova enough to discover that it does have a jet. Ben
111 kero or if on a motorcycle, British Army No7, both have been faultless and my go to stoves. The trangia 25 with the otimus nova conversion has been good in very bad weather, but the nova is complex with many seals to fail. The meths burner although simple, is a bit slow.
Coleman 502, fill it up and go. Definitely not a blast furnace for melting snow, but will cook food with the best of them. Simple to maintain, reliable, and easy to use. If you were to ask the question, "If you could only have one stove what would it be?" For me it would be the 502. I would take it over any modern stove like the Omni-Fuel, Nova, Dragonfly, XGK, any other Coleman single burner, even the 400-499, 508, and 550. The only way to make it better would be to have 2, so that you could brew your coffee and cook at the same time.
So, I'm going to answer my own question... I like different stoves for different reasons. For sheer technical brilliance, the Enders 9061 (either variant) is in a league of it's own. For cuteness, my new SVEA 121 probably wins. For the faultless service it's given me over the last 40 years with zero maintainance, my Shinabro 170-GR, and for no frills 'light and go' convenience, my Coleman 533. I've never owned an Optimus 111, but when I do, my opinions may change but that's another story!
My go-to stove is the 111C burning kerosene, quite, hot and reliable. To be fair, I'm not afraid to strip it down, clean it and give it some TLC from time to time. This stove gets regular use as the 4th burner on my electric range as the control died on that large burner. One thing I ALWAYS do is let it run at full power for several minutes before shutting it down, this burns off anything that accumulates in the generator and leaves it nice and clean. I've never had a clogged generator since I started doing this many years ago.
Or just choose a 2-burner Coleman suitcase, which is my nomination because of childhood memories; it's the first camp stove I experienced. Absolutely stable, even with the largest and heaviest pots. Simmers like a champ. Performs well in the wind, if you orient it properly. Works fine in the cold, at least down to the freezing point. Available for not much money (and plentiful) on the used market, at least in North America.
@David B. I changed my vote because to use the secondary or auxillary burner you have to have the primary burner lit to vaporize the fuel. I prefer independent controls, but I do understand your point.
Coleman used to advertise their stoves worked just like your kitchen stove. That was a misleading claim. My kitchen stove doesn't have an "up to light, down to burn" control, doesn't need to be pumped, and has burners that can operate independently. Swapping pots is a way of life when you use both burners. I'd say 70% of the time I just use the main burner. The auxiliary comes in handy at times, though. And I prefer the suitcase's quirks to a propane canister stove that wimps out when the canister is 1/4 full or less and the temperature is in the thirties or forties Fahrenheit (which can happen in the high mountains even in the middle of summer). Not that big a deal in my book but to each his own. A pair of 502's can't weigh significantly more than a single suitcase stove, at least not when car camping. Coleman did something just like that for a 2-burner marine stove they marketed:
