Very interesting writeup CrisAnderson27.
So, given the same steel and the same resulting hardness, the goal with both kind of blades is to achieve a good structure of he steel with small uniformly spread carbides to get the desired attributes of the edge. So let's assume the knife makers succeed getting there with both kinds of blades, then there would be no relevant difference in brittleness/chippiness between Honyaki- and clad steel knife edges. Differences would be there if one would not achieve that, meaning you could have a brittle Honyaki- or a brittle clad steel blade edge. I hope i got that right.
Your description/exapmles on the cladding are eye-opening as well.
Cheers!