I think complaining about CATRA testing is really mis-placed. In order to get any test standard to be useful, there has to be a basic or baseline that still forces variance over the correct range.
IF we stick XYZ in this machine you need to
force measurable variance (repeatable, measurable, scaled etc) in a specific way: ie quickly, consistently, with realized range easy to measure etc.
The special test medium is almost surely designed to solve some problem related to this.
If you recall back when ATK did chef knives they tried to dull the knives nd could't actually do it. They resorted to CUTTING ON GLASS or something stupid to "force variance" in an accceptable window of time to get results they could talk about.
That being said, it would be interesting to devise an "acid resistance" protocol,
and see if one can empirically validate /dimensionalize variance along that axis.
That is to say, without altering the CATRA setup, to maybe "dope" the blades with acid exposure and then run them thru the test.
The practical problems here is you might need to find/validate the correct chemicals and correct proportions and timings etc. That could be complex/expensive/hassle so the fact this wasn't done isn't a flaw, its maybe better thought of as possible next steps or extensions of the analysis.
Anyways, thanks OP for the test/results/writeup...
and the many commenters on this thread
Its a good discussion