I think what Larrin wants to say is that the "best steel" question is like the best car, band, neighborhood, cereal, lollipop questions. Your best bet is to check out something like Devin's steel thread and get a steel that is best suited for the types of characteristics you are looking for. There will always be trade-offs. First, you need to decide if you like stain resistance. Then you need to decide whether you want ultimate sharpness. Then, wear resistance. Then you need to look at toughness. A poor understanding of how these qualities play out in the kitchen is why we have chipped debas, lol. Lower skill means toughness and edge stability is most important. That means lower carbon content and softer blades: AEB-L, white 2, etc. If you are a barbeque guy, maybe you want wear resistance and you go for DT-swr. If you are a sushi master, maybe you want ultimate sharpness and some wear resistance and hardness at the cost of toughness so you go for white 1 at 63+ hrc, etc., etc.