If it's good enough for you then I'm happy for you.
But it's certainly not good enough for me and many other harder users as it's prone to rolling, chipping, breaking and can be a burden to sharpen since it's soft and maluable.
It is low end for a reason. Not absolute worst, but it's far from best.
Ummm ... are you referring to 420J2, 440A, or?
I have a couple offshore produced Buck 37x and 38x series with 420J2 blades. Buck did get the heat treat and edge geometry right. The edges on mine last at least as long with "heavy" use as my pre 2004 Old Timer 6OT and 7OT with "Schrade +" 440A blades.
Out of curiosity, what blade steels do you think were used in folders back in the mid 1800's to the 1970's, before the "modern" one hand openers, flippers, and the "advanced" steels were invented or used in a knife? (a hint: 440A if stainless (post 1900 or so), and 1095 if carbon steel).
The good folks from the mid 1800's (and long before) to at least the 1960's used their knives a heck of a lot "harder" than the average "hard user" of today.
The 400 series of steels (and the 10xx carbon steels) are not known for chipping.
You must have it confused with the super hard latest and greatest steel.
The harder the blade, the more prone it is to chipping.
Yes, the (now) low end steels can roll the edge. So what? Stropping on a dry strop restores the edge. No stone needed. People can (and have) used their leather belt, and boot toe or shank as a strop.
Any blade regardless of steel can (and will) break given enough abuse. If not used to pry, turn screws, beat through a branch or tree trunk, but to cut and slice, like a knife is designed for the blade will never break from use.
There are a lot of 100 plus year old knives in the world with the "soft and ductile blades" you complain about, ("ductile" means it will bend before it breaks/fails, by the way. not that it is brittle.) that don't have a broken blade or blades. (yeah, a few have been sharpened "to tooth picks".)
Back in the day, a quality pocket knife was expected to last 2 to 3 years before it was worn out and needed replaced.
Like I said, they routinely used their knives a heck of a lot harder out on the farm, in the factories, shops, on construction sites, fishing, camping, hunting, etc. with knife tasks (cutting/slicing, peeling critters ... no batoning to split fire wood, that was a job for the axe, hatchet, or froe) than we would even think of doing today.
A knife was a tool to them back in the day, not pocket jewelry or a "worry stone". They didn't only use it to open mail, or fondle it, because they were worried about the cost and/or rarity, or "it's too pretty to use." since it might get scratched or stained, might need sharpened after, or anything/everything else that would "ruin the resale value". I doubt they even thought of resale value.
The "soft" steels have been used for several hundreds of years (ok ... the stainless steels not quite so long, since they were only invented in the 1890's or in first 10 years of the 1900's) not because they are inexpensive, (for a major manufacturer like CASE, the cost of the steel is negligible, perhaps as much as pennies per knife, not dollars per knife, because they buy several tons at a time, getting a better price on the steel, and save on shipping.
I can tell you (from experience in the trucking industry) for a fact that it costs just as much to ship 100 pounds by truck as it does 40,000 pounds.
The rate per mile, is about the same. (short haul runs cost more per mile than a long haul run.)
