That's true to knives history. There have been arguments for generations it seems. The first big dust up I recall was whether forged knives were better than stock removal. In the main due to the manipulation of the grain to form something closer to the profile. The argument was based on some data from the Cubes of Industry that influenced knowledge at the time. It all fell apart 30 years later when the clarity of heat treatment and grain refinement came into its own and showed that it didn't make any difference after a good heat treat (including normalizing and grain manipulation.) There are some sore losers leftover from that debate.
The Brits with CATRA, and in the US mainly Spyderco pushed the knowledge of cutting angles and heat treatment together. Spyderco had a standing offer to take a Mule (specialized tang basically, with Your edge and heat treatment) and run it on the CATRA machine. Only you and Spyderco would know the results. In this way Sal was able to collect information about what edge angle and steel/HT together were the best of the day. That program is still open to anyone who wants to know how their stuff stacks up.
I work in medicine and have stood in for surgeries. Those medical grade scalpels edges don't even last halfway through a cut sometimes (think big broad belly). They are the best stainless stuff that the razor/scalpel makers metallurgical engineers can come up with. Probably balanced against cheap as they are one-use blades. Like the Kitchen Crowd, these blades seldom cut abrasive things. But they dull quickly. The chefs I know are hard on their knives and may have their blades professionally sharpened once a week because they like sharp knives.
Segue: D. T. Suzuki wrote a book called "Zen and the Art of Japanese Culture." I recall a story in there about a butcher. It's an enrichment story if you like that sort of thing.
Cutting flesh or fruits and veggies and dull blades is fairly simple and can't be tested by CATRA. A better environment is acid or alkaline as these will etch the edge into something less than perfection. No one has worked on a steel critieria for chemical or biological environmental resistance yet. I am interested in seeing how H-1 will perform since it's advertising is complete resistance to salt water erosion. It's not the greatest for edge deformation but it does hone quickly to sharp again even on leather. I know Larrin was discussing modifying his CATRA machine for other materials. Somehow the idea of a multi-thousand dollar testing machine covered in tomato juice bothers me. Maybe someday.
The reality of steels in knives is that when we figure out how to test better, some group coughs in the back of the audience and suggests an exception. We have to be open minded and add their data.
Because of Spyderco's experience with CATRA, especially Larrin's graphic work, it's a good place to begin evaluating which steels will be good points to begin making razors. As to abrasion resistance and toughness, I use the ancient criteria that beard hair is about the equivalent of copper wire of the same diameter. The most recent public discussion of razors implies that "beard hair is soft but still dulls razors." They don't discuss the scale or how that was tested. Any of you want to make some mules? I do not doubt before the SR project goes very far, that Spyderco will have made some in various steels and tested them. I don't know if I will get to see the results. What would be useful are different hollow grades as those have the least amount of testing available.
Larrin has not done testing on any blades in Bainite. Sal is excited to add that variable to their line for more than razor reasons and I agree with him. Of all the steels to choose from, simple steels like O-1 and 52100 rise to the top of the list because of the bainite potential. Some like CPM154 do as well and a few others. Then stain resistance enters the decision tree. Vanax has also been discussed. I have my own research to do too.