Yes, any real cook, or butcher will tell you the value of steeling the blade.
Can we agree that it does restore sharpness to the edge compared to not doing it?
We can if we understand the difference between steeling and sharpening. Strictly speaking though, steeling is not restoring the sharpness to the edge; it's restoring the edge. Sharpening is removing material to create a new edge. Yes, a subtle difference, but meaningful.
I wonder how many people actually use a steel. Not many -- I'd bet the percentage is in the single digits. But then, lot of people don't even sharpen. I've probably talked to hundreds of well-intentioned people who leave that task to the evening before the deer season opens, and never get around to it. Some don't really even know how to sharpen a knife. Thus the market for a sharp, replaceable blade.
Steve.
"I was a deerhunter long before I was a man." ~Gene Wensel's Come November (2000) "A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user." ~Theodore Roosevelt
