Cooking rice in a special machine does smack a bit of buying one of those special kettles with three different 'boiling' points... (why not just turn it off before it's bubbling if you want 'genuine' coffee, for example).
Similarly, people have been cooking rice by the technique of boiling then low-heat steaming since for ever. What is the advantage of a rice cooker?
Advantage is the steamer aspect. Electric is more renewable than Gas also. Plug this in leave it for 10 min to steam veg and cook rice, two in one all good. Beats getting out two pans, putting two hobs on to cook rice and steam veggies.
What's the point of kettles, irons, slow cookers?
Only issue i see with the Russel hobs one, is the inside element looks like it starts to melt after a couple of weeks :S I might have to search around a bit more.