The problem with asking what the "best" steel is is that cutting tools become dull by several different methods, and depending on your intended use of the knife, some steels might be better or worse. If you're looking for sheer strength, get just about anything in 1/4" thick steel of any sort, and it will be strong. Might not be much of a cutter, depending on the design, but it will be strong. What you want is a knife that is...
Tough - Resists shattering or chipping
Hard - Resists bending or edge deformation
Abrasion resistant - resists being worn away by what you're cutting
Corrosion resistant - resists being chemically altered by various substances
There are lots and lots of really well made knives out there, made out of steels that frequently excel at one or two of these factors, but any blade material is going to be a balance of these, and your categories "Everyday life, tactical, survival" are still so broad as to be effectively meaningless.
Everyday life: Do you mean something you keep in your pocket all day, every day, treat with benign neglect, etc? Or are you going to take it out every night and oil it? Sharpen daily, or occasionally? What's your level of sharpening experience? What equipment do you have?
Tactical: Do you have knife-fighting fantasies? If so, what style of knife fighting have you studied? OR Do you mean more like a combat knife (which opens just about anything under the sun, but is rarely, if ever used to harm a person)?
Survival: Are you skilled in survival? Do you prefer a thin mora-type knife, or a thicker knife that you can't break even by prying rocks apart? Do you need to survive in a saltwater mangrove swamp, or an arid desert, or a boreal forest in winter, or on the Appalachian Trail in Spring? Do you picture this knife dressing prey, cleaning fish, or just whittling while you are 10 feet from your tent?
I don't mean to sound like a jackass, but your answers to all of those questions would influence not only which steel you chose for your dream knife, but which knife design, including length, thickness, handle material, blade material, grind, etc, etc, etc. There are thousands of different knives out there, and dozens of blade materials (I don't just say "steel" here, because you can also buy H1 knives from Spyderco, or titanium from several makers, and both excel for some tasks). The reason for this embarrassment of choices is not merely because people want to make money, it's because the question "What's the best knife?" has thousands of answers, each of which is right for a particular person, for a particular job. Stick around, read lots of threads, read reviews, and visit a local knife shop... get your hands on a few knives that have good reviews, and see if you like the feel of them in your hand. You'll find the right answer to the question for you... eventually.
(For what it's worth, I think a person could do much much worse than getting a Spyderco Delica as a first knife. It could end up being the last knife you buy also... but probably won't be.)
