Well, theoretically, he was inquiring about the kiritsuke versus a gyuto or some other style of knife in blue steel.
Now, I'm not sure if the Shun piece is a traditional kiritsuke possessing the single bevel versus what you would find on, say, Takeda's or Moritaka's or most of the products being offered as "kiritsukes", which are simply sword tipped shaped gyutos. However, in looking at the Shun unit, I'm inclined to believe that it's a double bevel and it does possess a gentle upsweep at the forward 1/3 of the blade, so it's really not what one would consider a functioning "true" kiritsuke, either as a traditional single bevel or double bevel gyuto type.
The one comparative piece that comes to mind is the Takayuki Grand Cheff 260mm kiritsuke in the AEB-L Swedish stainless steel, which can be found for approximately the same street price as the Shun Blue item, with the Takayuki being a traditional single bevel blade. Most of the other true kiritsukes are pretty pricey from what I've seen, running in the neighborhood of $350+. As well, true single bevel Japanese kiritsukes possess a much narrower profile than what people expect from a main usage chef knife. I don't know if a short profiled, long, single bevel knife is what a lot of us Westerners would pick up first in the kitchen to do most of our work with.
I personally use a 240 mm kiritsuke styled gyuto quite a bit, nearly on a daily basis in the kitchen. I've found that it's a pretty well rounded knife in terms of rapidly transitioning from a veggie prep blade to protein slicer. The flatter profile takes some getting used to, but I enjoy it even when I'm doing a lot of prep work on veggies or slicing a bunch of protein. (I did have to remove the forge slag kurouchi finish to have it be more effective when working with proteins and the 240mm length isn't enough on the larger cuts of meat, which usually has me switching over to a 300mm pro-style Shun slicer as the rounded tip prevents me from constantly inserting a sharp point into my left hand when I'm booking through 200 flanks or tenderloins.)
And I'm not sure what you mean by Shun's "track record." Other than attempting to appeal to a wider range of potential customers and subsequently bringing more people into the concept and usage of traditional Japanese style blades/steels, I don't see the reason for the stated skepticism. I've enjoyed some of their products a lot (the previously mentioned 300mm pro slicer and their bread knife are excellent). No, they aren't hand made, but a lot of people will take consistency and quality over exclusivity.
However, to answer the OP's original question:
A 250mm kiritsuke style gyuto in blue steel that has a mirror polished stainless cladding, a wa handle, potentially very good to excellent fit and finish and an accompanying saya for $250? Sounds pretty good to me.
I was picturing more like making Italian noodles. This is quite different. Actually, it's just smarter. That kinda blew my mind.
