I'll open my mouth and remove all doubt. ha ha! 3 things in a good steel/HT.... Hardness, Toughness, and Wear Resistance. I think toughness is often overlooked in the kitchen knife steel and all out wear resistance given too much accolade. Again, I'm just spitballin' here, but the way I see it, ceteris paribus (geometry, good microstructure, limited RA, etc), the paramount factor in a kitchen knife steel is hardness. The harder the better. But it might chip if it gets too hard. That's when toughness plays it's role. Kitchen knife edges often deform because of impacting the cutting board, plate, bone, etc, and don't experience much in the way of abrasion. I think abrasion resistance has limited application in the average kitchen, and becomes more of a liability come sharpening time.
That is why carbon steels are often preferred in the kitchen (not always of course, especially when corrosion resistance is needed or mandated). They can be run very hard, 64HRC+, have toughness out the wazoo, but not as much abrasion resistance. Super Blue comes to mind talking about all this. A great kitchen steel because it has good characteristics. There are indeed abrasive resistant hard carbides (mostly of the WC variety). And while these carbides do add in overall wear resistance, they also help the overall cohesion of the martensite matrix, which in turn makes the steel tougher. Last year after Aldo got Blue 2 in, I hardened a piece of the .140" stock and was simply amazed at how well the coupon refused to break.