420 HC has a certain set of material properties, these are going to give a knife made out of it certain abilities (and cost), these specifics will be suited to certain applications and thus be highly regarded by some people and not others depending on what they do.
I use blades over a very wide range of tasks and have yet to see a blade shape or steel that I wouldn't like to have over all the other blades I have seen for certain applications. For example I would prefer an Arclite in 420HC over the 10V blade I have for work I have to do in the graveyard.
Most of the work in that areas is very hard on a knife; scraping paint, loosening up deep weeds, digging out loose concrete, cutting away rotted wood, chopping up new stakes for flowers (obviously with some assistance) etc., but an edge is still necessary for cutting twine, plastic wrapping etc. . The 10V blade I have would not respond well to that kind of work because of the profile (1/8" distal taper, fine point) and choice of temper (62.5 RC).
It is nothing however that would bother the Arclite and I would think nothing of leaving it up on the graveyard with the other few tools and water bottles for example. This is due to the high corrosion resistance plus the low cost. I would obviously not do this with a $300+ custom knife.
I don't think there is anything wrong with saying that a particular steel doesn't suit you well or have the performance you need but just be specific as if you generalize in a vague way can be very misleading especially to people who are just starting out. This goes both ways for example, the opposite, promotion of the positive without any comment on the negative is what causes hype.
The best way to to describe both the positive and negatives of the steel (or blade) and let the reader maker up their mind. Casting your own preference into it will only benefit them if they have the same needs as you.
Walt, I know you are retired but would you mind a medical related question. I need to know which journals to read to keep up to date on treatments for a few things. If you are open I'll email you the specifics.
-Cliff