I think there are a number of different answers to your question . I actually agree with your comment as to why are knives judged by how well they can or cannot Batton ! Many years ago when first learning the skills of survival bushcraft I was taught how to batton with a reasonable strong knife (preferably full tang) especially when I was teaching survival skills later in life I would take a Bahco Lapland saw or a small hatchet or parang to demonstrate alternative methods of chopping , cutting , battoning etc . I have usually found that there is enough smaller pieces of wood lying around to get your initial fire started together with a small amount of tinder . During my time with the Forces we never really practiced starting fires as it was against SOPs to eat hot food , smoke or give your position away by building a small fire , we adhered to what was commonly called cold routine .
There are definitely a lot thicker fixed blades available these days and quite a few seem to be designed more for surviving the antics of the YouTubers who will abuse them than to be something someone would want to haul around all day in their pack. I like a big chopper as much as the next guy, but they're mainly going to be used for car camping. To avoid any misunderstandings with law enforcement though, just ensure you keep it in the trunk, next to your zap straps and duct tape...
It always made me shake my head, when someone would refer to another person lost in the wilderness and say they'll be fine because they were in the army. Suckling at the teat of logistics doesn't exactly lend itself to survival skills (other than winter warfare or other specialized environment training and the quality of that varies a lot). You might end up somewhere were you get some brief exposure to a survival expert. You might get a mini-course or part of a course that focuses a bit on wilderness survival, but it's just not a priority of most modern militaries in the 1st World these days (unlike sensitivity training). Bush skills that used to exist degraded a lot by the end of the Cold War. You learn how to use stoves but not start fires. I did see one sergeant take a Coleman lantern completely apart and fix as easily as if he was making coffee, while other experienced NCOs watched in amazement at this guy's mad skills. Having portable toilets available in the field means that nobody knows how to site or build a decent piss hole or shitter (complete with grunt bar). They will never know the pleasure of hearing a grunt bar snap and an officer screaming as they fall into a shitter, while they bite their own hand to keep from laughing too loud and putting a bull's eye on their own back.
Camping, hiking, and the skills my father taught me helped me a lot more in the bush than the military ever did. What the military gives you is the ability to react better in a crisis (
hopefully), the drive to see your way out of it (
provided you weren't one of the slack and idle), and the need to stay hydrated (
should my piss be black?). A lot of people are getting hurt a lot playing with sharp and pointy things, either because our electronic devises have given us the attention span of a squirrel or our lives lend themselves to less tactile experiences with tools. What a lot of people today call
bushcraft is what a lot of people just called camping, where camp skills varied wildly from person to person. If you're an office worker who doesn't have any experiences with using an axe, waiting until you're in the great outdoors and far from the trailhead might not be in your best interest. Watching videos about safe tool use is great, but not having any experience before hitting the wilderness can have consequences when you're tired from being in the harness of a backpack all day and you start making dumb mistakes. Batoning with an axe is actually easy, because you have the weight of the hatchet or axe to work with, so you don't need to use a mallet.
~ Don't believe the Hype ~ How the Subconscious mind works ~ See Video Below ~ Our brains our a Playground for many Trespassers ~ Knowingly and Unknowingly ~ Understanding how our minds work is the beginning of true freedom ~there are no sound solutions without first having sound understanding ~ Truth Seeker's ~ You shall know the Truth and the Truth will set you Free ~ John 8:32
