Some, maybe, but my gut says the main response would be "well they're one of the good ones."

Didn't see the bread under the steak, just thought the steak was funny colored, whoops. So, I assumed they'd be dipping the steak.

Yes. Unless they mean to dip bread, which is redundant because there's already bread in it floating under that cheese.

Having made both, that soup will absolutely wash off anything you've put on the steak. Yes you CAN dip steak into the soup, but imo it's an affront to the steak and whatever seasonings were on it. It's not like a chowder that's thick and will easily stick, either, it's stock. Mmm, let me have some muted stock on my now bland steak because it washed off into my soup. No it won't wash off everything but it will take off more than I'd ever be willing to compromise on. Whatever I put on a steak stays on the steak.

Adam Ragusea did a video on the topic explaining the intricacies a bit better, and then did a very small test to see if he could taste a difference. If I recall correctly, he couldn't tell if it held the sauce any better, but hypothesized that the bronze die pasta would impart more starches to the pasta water, which would in turn result in a tastier or thicker sauce if one is partial to reintroducing their pasta water into the sauce.

Yeah, I feel like that'd be a way better way to do that. But at that point it's actually stealing. Where what OP plans to do is technically borrowing them, because they plan to return them eventually, just all at once, when they leave. So donating them would probably be out of the question to them due to their own morals.

Wish I could give gold to boost this, because while I understand everyone else's emotional responses, realistically there's next to nothing a kid can do when their parents are like this other than hope they can find a mandatory reporting trustworthy adult (generally: teacher, school counselors), and that some sort of good comes from that. Maybe they can find a friend to crash with to get out earlier, but that's a hard ask.

Doing the same as the parents/brother goes against OP's morals. It sounds like retaliation in any form against the brother would be somewhat futile, as they're "parents precious spoiled baby" and if found would likely result in even worse treatment. Hiding the controllers is mild, but that's $60 a pop, if they wind up hiding those every few days to every week, someone's going to catch on. No one has a place to store 50+ controllers, and unless their parents are rich rich, I doubt they'll be okay with constantly pissing away that money every week, even if it is for "their little angel."

Maybe the school would come up with a small fund raiser to help them go where they were saving for, or maybe it'd start a chain to get an actual loving family member custody. Or maybe it'd do nothing. But it's leaps and bounds better than purposely poking the bear, and hoping it doesn't lash out worse than it's already been doing.