Boiling in a pot can work but when working with yeast you have to be extra cautious with sanitation. The reason for boiling in the flask is you eliminate the chance of infecting a batch while transferring from the pot to the flask and it ensures the flask is totally sanitary as well. If you do choose to boil in a pot inside of the pot I would recommend using a stainless steel pot rather than non-stick so that you can take a lighter to the rim of the pot where you are going to pour it into the flask..
Good point, so I'm back to thinking that a quick boil in the flask might be easier, although I like the idea of flaming the rim of the pan. And as someone who avoids agents like fermcap (although apparently anyone eating chicken mcnuggets is eating polydimethylsiloxane - i've been off the nuggets for years now) I also don't cook on non-stick pans.
I really don't understand what the issue with fermcap is. The amount that ends up in the final beer from one drop in your starter is minimal. If you use a no rinse sanitizer small amounts of that end up in your beer. If you use bottles instead of kegs then even more sanitizer ends up in the beer. For the most part my beer is just barley, water, hops and yeast with the exception of minerals because my water is really soft and the one drop of fermcap.
I was curious about how much that one drop really is so I did the math. In my 10 gallon batches that one drop is close to 1 part per million and potentially even less because I crash cool my starters so I can pour off the wort and just pitch the yeast. So in a 5 gallon batch the one drop in the starter would be 2 parts per million or less. The FDA guidelines require it to be less than 10 parts per million which it already is way under. What this doesn't take into account is that yeast will also work to eliminate the fermcap, basically any that is left after fermentation has adhered to the yeast so when you move your beer from the yeast cake, the final product in the bottle or keg with far less yeast in it is going to have way way way less than the one or two parts per million you started with so with the 10ppm guideline and only having a fraction of a ppm in your final beer I think you should be good to go.
I respect how you arrive at your decision. I wasn't able to verify that yeast use or absorb polydimethylsiloxane the same way it utilizes the ingredients in starsan, though. As for me, I just try to limit my exposure to additives like fermcap out of general principle. If I can do without it, I'd rather do it that way.
So, from all of the input (and thanks to all of you for it), I think I'm going to boil the starter in a pot and chill it in the pot, boil a small amount of water in the flask with the foil to sanitize both and let it cool with the foil on, sanitize a funnel, flame the rim of the pot, add the starter to the flask, drop in the yeast and stir bar, and get it on the plate.
Just as a caution for anyone who doesn't already know: don't open your WLP vial immediately after vigorously shaking it. I did. You won't like it.