See, that's where you're wrong. I think that for much of the knife community (including non kitchen knife), trophy's are exactly what knives are. They're achievements in collection. Personally, I think we're a bit spoiled for not having to deal with this much on this forum because most people seem to care about performance and actually using their knives. However, there are obviously a few of them: like those who give home cooks a bad name because top priority is something pretty to hang on the wall and show off at dinner parties and they could care less about "performance." For the sake of their guests I hope they don't take the same approach to their food "hey it take's like dog ****, but it looks fancy.... and being a home cook, that's what I'm most concerned with."
That said, I don't think Oivind is in the catagory of people looking for trophies for a shelf, I think he just wants performance and a very high degree of finished ascetics. He's not a trophy collector, just a geeky perfectionist that's willing to pay for it (as I think many of us are). If he where looking for a girl, I'd assume he'd only consider 22yr old super models with double doctorates, a great personality, and porn star like bedroom behavior to be attractive.
When talking about beauty and Carter's knives, I think that it's important to mention that some beauty comes with understanding on the part of the viewer. This reminds me of when I was learning ceramics from one of the greatest masters that I've ever known:
After we had spent several weeks on the wheel learning to throw a basic, even, thin cylinder on wheel, he showed the class a cup. From a distance it looked twisted and uneven (like most of our mistakes looked). However, upon closer inspection and handling the cup, it was incredibly light, the walls were paper thin and perfectly even in thickness. The cup wasn't lopsided, it was actually thrown in a sort of large, spiral so that it looked like it was spinning even standing still. No only was it an amazing creation, but he could do it in less time than it took us to center our clay.
To me, looking at a Carter is a similar experience. When you understand the hand forging process and how difficult it is to make anything that even resembles a knife, and then you also understand how difficult it is to make a knife with excellent performance (thin but rigid, low drag, but also good release, even distal taper, good geometry, etc) then a Carter starts to look pretty ****ing gorgeous. However, if you've never held one in your hand, I could understand how pictures might not do it justice.