It's never a stretch. In fact, it seems to be our default tendency and preferred way of thinking, most of the time. But there are plenty of objective facts that counter the doom cult, and the reality is that many, many things are better across the globe than they were a century ago..
But we digress from the main topic - I blame Ray Mears for all of it.
I don't think that thick "Scandi" knives are the best choice in an all-around outdoors knife (notice I didn't say the "B" word...). They do some things very well, but that comes at the expense of other things - just like most items that become too specialized in design. I'm also tired of the overused "B" word in general, as it can mean so many different things, to different people, in different contexts/environments, that I'd much rather just call it what it is -
an outdoors knife. This may mean sitting around and carving, or it may mean dressing out a deer, or processing kindling or cutting up a trailside lunch. If you're only going to focus one doing one of those things while outdoors, then there are specific designs that will excel - for some, carving is most important and they don't even consider game processing, while for others the exact opposite is true. Some don't baton, others do. A good general outdoors knife if you live in the Sonoran Desert would likely be quite different than the best choice if you are in northern Boreal Forest, as the needs in those environments differ significantly. There is no singular application nor definition of the "B" word in my experience, even though most mistakenly assume we're all talking about the same thing.
