For me it is a bunch of reasons.
1] The principle that some foster, that it is hand made therefore necessarily better is wasted on me. I find that reasoning faulty so I reject it.
2] I have more confidence in something that has been professionally made than something that has been home baked simply because the sample size under real world trials is larger. Whilst there are excellent hobby makers out there for sure how many are truly professional, and how easy is tell a good one from a bad one. Something that has Spyderco written on it automatically gives me a feeling of assurance that simply can't be matched by men in sheds that have sold a few hundred let alone a few dozen. It isn't just home baked by a man in a shed vs a factory. It is home baked against world class players.
3] I don't do the personalization of knives thing that usually comes with home baked. A rack of identical knives to me is great, it indicates quality control. Others find that uniformity abhorrent. If even they haven't gone to the step of getting a true one of a kind hand made knife that is unique to them, they will often strain to personalize it some other way carve their initials in it, get their mum to sew their name in it, even rejoice in the pattern of rust thats on it because no other knife has a pattern of corrosion just like that on it. You can amuse yourself with these people by dint of prediction. Give them an already extremely sharp knife and allow them to sharpen it, they will. They may not make it any better at cutting but they are happier because they've put their own pattern on it. I don't get that. Often the claim is made that a knife is a tool. Well yeah, I treat them like them. I don't personalize screwdrivers or pliers either.
4] Whilst the full tang and slab handles may be preferable to me for a number of reasons the fact remains that they often take a hell of a lot less skill to make than other types. Frame tangs and elaborate bolsters are far harder to make than slabs. Similarly, forging and drawing a wire rod then drilling down by eye so it resembles a drinking straw were standard skills in the days of Tom Beasley [SP]. I have respect for the craft of that as well as the art. Although brilliant knives are made by stock removal the trend is now such that any pleb can go get a bit of 01 [often selected because it is friendly to the maker as it is comparatively hard to FU], cut it out and straight to the belts. Simply pin on a couple of slabs when you're done and that's it. I even saw a scandi the other day with plywood scales. I just don't respect the craft in its current state as I would have done. That usually negates any feelings I would have had about the journey a handmade knife has been on as it got to me as being special. It's more just a product, a good one or a bad one. I can get that from a factory.
5] Few hobby makers here make good designs in materials appropriate to me without some shocking penalty elsewhere. Rubber. I like rubber handled knives. I know they are perhaps the cheapest way to handle a knife done in a huge run, and some people use that as an indicator of desirability. I just find it a happy coincidence. If it cost 10* the price of G10 or Micarta I'd still want it. However, because it done as molding on equipment not available to the home baker, there's a terrible paucity of it on home baked knives. Then there's that tendency for simple carbons that has no appeal to me. D2 is about the hardest I'd want to maintain. In short, getting a knife made from what I want is going to come at a premium over the factory with no readily apparent benefits.
6] The field knife I use at the moment I just love. I've said it a bunch before that although it is inferior in terms of materials to the F1 I prefer it. True, I'd like Boker to release an ATS 34 version, but other than that I can't improve it. If I were to look for a hobby maker to make a ringer for it I think they'd produce something no more useful to me but at greater cost. True, mine is at about 58 Rockwell and a good hobby maker could take that a couple of points higher. But 440C craps out at 60 and becomes way too brittle for a field knife so there's only a tiny amount of headroom to play with. In sum, I'd almost certainly have to sacrifice the handle I enjoy so much for 1 more point of hardness. That's a diminished return. I like knives. I like what good ones allow me to do. But I'm not such an anorak about it to make that swap.
7] As I'm not interested in art knives all that is left for me with the home baked thing is to get designs I can't get from factory. As far as knives go factories have got that covered already quite nicely. For me it would take me needing something quite exotic for me to go handmade. I've seen three lovely looking golok type things on here that I simply could not get anything like from a factory. That's a motive which lures me to the home baked side. I just don't need anything like that at the moment, and draws full of unused knives to me are just clutter and junk.
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