I’m not speaking on cooking knives as I already have a set of handmade carbon steel knives from a local blacksmith. I also have a cheap chinese made 1075 carbon steel cleaver from amazon. (One I had to modify to get it to be what I wanted.) I’m speaking from pocket knife experience.
I daily carry a Spyderco Tenacious, which if you know steels, has a pretty soft steel in the grand scheme of things. (8cr13MoV)
I’ve attempted trying knives with the “super steels” and it’s such a chore to sharpen them when they get dull that the time just isn’t worth it.
I honestly prefer the D2 from Boker as it holds an edge far better, but still is only slightly annoying to sharpen.
There are pros and cons to all these metals but that harder crap I tend to save for jobs that actually need that kind of steel. (Lean meats, etc.) Chopping some veggies wouldn’t call for me to break out my nice knives as they take too much care to keep in good condition for just chopping up some spring onions or what-not.
There is something to be said for a knife to be able to make a simple job that much smoother and easier for sure. Not worth the trade-off in total time consumed though. Cheap, shitty wal-mart knife and a honing rod > $800 1095 carbon steel Japanese super knife.