As someone who eats popcorn very regularly, I find the microwave to be 100% perfect at it (so long as the kernels aren't many years old). Also I super hate "microwave popcorn" because it's usually at a 10-100x markup compared to just a bag of kernels which are equally 'microwave'able.
I intended to follow up by joining in with a mention of a gizmo, but I think I literally don't have one. So now I'm just a spoilsport.
This is very interesting. I just put the popcorn in a glass bowl. Actual paper bags could be fun