Allright, allright....
Fitz, my friend, you made me nearly fall off the chair laughing.
Just for the record (I'll be serious for a second, don't blink cuz it won't last long)...
Some of the best makers in the world are stock removal makers.
There are NO smiths that don't remove at least a little stock after forging to shape... even guys like Tai Goo and Tim Lively. They don't take MUCH off... but they gotta take some off.
Many of the very best bladesmiths in the world started off with stock removal.
Becoming a bladesmith requires adding an entirely new set of tools to the knife shop. And that means big $$$.
I think it's silly for people to say it's better... but it IS DIFFERENT and adds an entirely new world of possibilities.
The one thing I do think is better in a forged blade (and this is simply my opinion) is that with a damacus blade you make the pattern flow with the profile of the blade. You simply cannot do that with stock-removal... there's no arguing that one either.
While I don't think it's better. I think it is infinitely MORE FUN to heat steal up and move it with a hammer.
To most people in today's society, steel is a finite element. It comes from some far away factory, made by giant industrial tools, and will always be however it is that it came from said factory.
To be able to heat it up in a forge, and manipulate it to YOUR wants with a hammer and anvil, is both challenging and incredibly rewarding.
It's a whole new skill set... which for me, was very hard to grasp... but very much worth the effort required.
Hot work is my favorite part of the process. I can walk by the grinder and not care whether or not I turn it on.
I cannot walk by my forge running (even if it's just to heat the shop) and not want to stick some steel in there, get it hot, and hammer on it.
But yes... you can most certainly make a knife without a forge.
