I maybe go a little finer than some, say a 5k or natural around the 5-6k range. Then touch up after each use on some sort of finishing stone, always starting the day with a fresh edge; when it doesn’t seem like the edge is holding anymore I drop down a stone to something like 2k. I keep a muddy Aiiwatani at work in the rare case I need or want to touch up during a shift, less than a minute does it, as fast as using a rod. I also have a minimum of two knives on me at any time - I call it Blackbeard style: drop the spent one and pick up a freshie. Rarely necessary.
A Mac black rod is really just a 3k synth anyway, although I get the comment about optics. And it matters whether one likes to sharpen or considers it a necessary evil.
To the original topic, yes, Munetoshi, Mazaki, Shigehiro come to mind. Once I got used to working with reactive cladding it wasn’t a big issue, although having a stainless knife of some sort around is a good idea. That said I have more knives in blue and white 1 - but maybe that has more to do with the smiths and their choice of steel; I haven’t had a Hinoura but I hear his white 2 is the bomb dot com. Conversely, I’ve tried some high alloy PM tool steels and not found any real benefit over something like R2 or CPM154. And stainless cladding does make things easier but is a melonfarmer to thin on stones.
