Damasteel is made by laying down with a machine the two steels as alternating layers of powdered alloys in a type of mold and using that machine to produce the patterns, then fused (welded).Stainless damascus from guys like Ealy, Thomas, etc is made by stacking up alternating layers of the two alloys by hand, then welding and patterning them. The main difference that I see is that Del, Devin, Mike, and Chad are still making what is hand made damascus, while Damasteel is a mass production item. Another difference at one time was the cost. Damasteel was considerably less money than Mike's and Devin's, but it's now pretty expensive. The alloys used by Damasteel are different from the others.
I have used Damasteel a few times. It is a quality made product. However, I really don't like using it. The main reason is the finishing process. You must etch Damasteel in nitric or hydrochloric acid, or muriatic acid (hydrochloric at a specific level of concentration). I use muriatic, and I don't like the fuming. It burns eyes and nasal passages, and it rusts equipment. The steels made by Del, Mike, etc can be etch in ferric chloride, which is safe and easy to use. I can't get as nice a contrast with Damasteel. I personally don't care for the patterns of Damasteel, whereas the other guys have more interesting patterns.
As far as kitchen knives are concerned, Damasteel should perform decently. My speculation is that it would be comparable to 154cm or ATS-34. I do believe that the carbide and grain size of AEB-L, a main ingredient in the hand made stainless damascus, is much smaller. That would translate into a keener edge. As for the patterns on a wide blade, any damascus can be and is usually distorted alone the edges in comparison to the center area.
David