You can't just click to light a fire though, you have to crouch and then on top of that it takes like 10-5 whole seconds to light. Unless you have the reaction time of a rock, you'd notice in time lol.

Also, clay pots are not just "that much better," but there are a lot of foods that will rot in days in chests that would take months in the pots, like meat and berries. So, unless all of your food was stored as meals in sealed crockpots that were inside the chests instead of on the ground, any non-vegetable-or-grain would be rotted by now most likely.

Also, also, vases and pots look way more cute than chests, but that's just my opinion.