As the demand on higher end / custom kitchen knives is growing, so is the number of out makers who previously made outdoor or hunting knives. They basically have all the skills, but often little to no knowledge on grind (details of which do not matter all that much with a hunting knife) or profile. So they start to make full flat grind with a substantial sharpening bevel.
I don't know about other parts of the world, but in the USA, I believe the number of people enjoying hunting and outdoor activities that were the traditional demographic for many custom knifemakers is shrinking. That means less people to sell a hunting or camp knife to, but almost everybody has at least one kitchen knife, so kitchen knives have been a way to supplement sales for a lot of American makers.
However, like you mentioned, even long time knifemakers will claim a full flat grind on thin stock is the best geometry for chef's knives. I think the reasoning is they believe a kitchen knife is more of a slicer than chopper? But that's just guessing on my part. And on top of that, leaving a thicker edge to avoid bacon edge style warping during heat treat is another "tradition". To be fair, that larger edge bevel with thickness behind the edge can work ok for most American home kitchens with most people rocking the blade through most veggies. It's the most common experience we have here in the US when it comes to chef's knives.
I've always understood the natural progression towards making kitchen knives coming from using them, collecting them, sharpening, tweaking the geometry and/or profile, then handle making, etc. What I see a lot lately is guys jumping in with zero prior interest/experience on any level and making damascus or san mai (kitchen) blades from day 1. Some of these folks are for sure bladesmiths who are stretching out into kitchen knives yet others are just a young guy in a shed trying something new. This is something new to me to see and has me wondering why?
The only reason that I got interested in knives was from being an enthusiastic home cook, though at one point in my life, I did work in a kitchen where 50% of our cutting prep was by deli slicer. :O I think most of the other forumites here have some sort of culinary background, whether that is working in a kitchen or cooking for fun.
Maybe making knives is rising in popularity because of a combination of factors. Forged in Fire television show has exposed a lot of people to knifemaking. Social media makes it easy to discover new things. Personally, it was seeing WIP posts from jessf on this forum that got me interested in making rather than collecting kitchen knives. That plus the amount of resources now online about the processes involved make it easy to start, although there is also a lot of not so good info out there too.
I think the kitchen knife thing goes back to what I was saying above, if you make kitchen knives, then your potential customer pool is basically anybody who wants to cut food. That could even be somebody who doesn't cook but cuts up fruits and veggies to eat.
