Agree with others 2-fold.
A) it a very good well rounded knife steel that does a bit of everything well. Sure 3v is tougher, but not stainless. Sure m390 will hold an edge longer. But at peak hardness not as tough, and much harder (for avg. Joe with avg. equip) to sharpen... Sure vg10 might take a finer edge, and even be more stain resistant, (idk if it is), but again, at peak hardness also tends to be more chippy... So yeah,it's just a good all around steel for knives.
B) popularity/familiarity... developed in part by & for Chris Reeves, it has gained notoriety, and while the true 1% may be steel snobs and want badder newer alloys, or better for task specifics, or whatever, the VAST majority of consumers don't know what the letters and numbers on a knife mean, don't care, and and probably think Stellite is just some foreign word for "stainless" or "rostfrei". We knife knuts are the vast minority, most people don't know who Carpenter or Crucible or Svandik, or Bohler-Uddeholm are, don't care, and still equate Hitachi with power tools or electronics, not a steel company.
That recognizable association that has become synonymous with many "high end" knives now, (coupled with it being a decent steel, not some run of the muck pot metal), I imagine plays at least a part in it's continued use in many brands today. Supply and demand 101. To maximize profit, you sell what sells, more then you try to sell something else. (That would be sales and marketing).
I personally still like ELMAX better then S35VN,as an all around, well rounded steel, and imagine that notoriety is large in part why S35VN managed to remain popular, while ELMAX kind of became a very niche market in comparison.
So yeah, in summary, it is a very adequate, decent, well rounded steel, that has gained some noteriety and has become regularly associated with some well recognized quality brands. And while catering to us, the 1%, has some upside for producers, (think sprint runs), the 90% majority simply don't know and/or care, and the 9% in between, who aren't obsessive like we are, but do care and at least have some recognition, see S35VN and think association w/ CRK, ZT, Spartan, Medford, Hoback, or even WE and Kizer or high end Buck's, some more recognizable "high end" knives, (high end to the common folk), so it might help sell to them, whereas cts-20cv, or m390, mean about as much to a common person as say 420hc or 8cr13mov...
