Clearly you didn't read anything else I wrote but still felt it necessary to fit your two cents into a conversation everyone else has forgotten.
I agree the PM2 is wildly overrated and I didn't keep mine. But it is still a good tool, with exceptional blade geometry, and a lot of guys who are into Emersons also dig the PM2.
You are right, there is absolutely an advantage to using a chisel grind dedicated for one's dominant hand. Otherwise the bevel is at a less efficient angle and either the material or the wrist but be moved from the most natural and efficient position to compensate.
For a knife marketed as the "best hard use knives in the world" it seems a design flaw to match a left-hand chisel blade to a right-hand handle just because it looks better in pictures that way. But as a lefty myself, I love my lefty CQC-7. It's one of the few they make with lefty handles. But the lefty knives aren't pictured in the catalog or on the website so they just use the same blades with reversed lockbar geometry. Fine with me, it is a fantastic lefty production knife - a disappointedly underserved market segment
- and I guarantee anyone reading this, it makes a difference what side the grind is on. Any carver or smith will say the same. To say otherwise is an act of self-delusion brought on - I believe - from an unwillingness to disparage a beloved brand even in the slightest. But in a sense, and I realize not many others would agree, it shows a lack of respect for the intelligence of the customer. It is evidence of the belief that marketing can fill any cognitive gap in the consumer's mind created by less than optimal design. Apple is commonly cited for manifesting similar behavior in many of its customers.
My point was merely their marketing is the most over-the-top among production knife manufacturers. Most of their designs - not all, some are exceptional utility blades - are only good for cutting flesh and the OP was talking about using one of these primarily on the worksite and using the wave as a bottle opener. I only thought he ought to temper expectations. They are all great for fondling on the couch or showing off to your buddies and they feel fantastic in the hand but some can disappoint in utility tasks.
I also don't think anyone should carry a knife for self defense purposes, Emerson is very heavy on this aspect in their marketing too. They use military language, testimonials, and iconography to sell knives to civilians primarily. You don't want to be the guy who escalates a fist fight into a knife fight without really thinking about it just because there's a knife you can wave out of your pocket and scare the other guy. What if he doesn't get scared? What if he's drunk? Are you going to murder an unarmed man or put it away and hope he doesn't use it against you? On top of that you don't want to get in a heads up knife fight cause that normally ends with two guys bleeding on the sidewalk. And I'm sure you've heard the line about knives and gun fights. Any one-hand opening knife can be pressed into use in the scenarios you'd actually want to use it - eg to create space with a slash to the arm and then run. The quickest way to end a fight is often just to leave it.
In America, if you feel you need to wield deadly force for protection, carry a gun. And if you need a folding utility knife for worksite tasks there are better options out there than many Emersons.
As to your last point, I would never step foot in the house of a man who has not challenged the sturdiness of the beliefs he holds dear to ensure they hold fast in the face of something as benign as a little free and open speech. Even speech with a little bite. No too long ago men could lash out with their wit to dispatch those whose rhetoric was deemed less than agreeable. But I fear too many now are fast with their fists because they are frustrated in the mind. Not that you're such a person. Personally, I don't hold any belief dear enough that I would not be able to abandon it in the face of a superior evidence or logic.
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