there are two types of sharpening.
1. Practical performance. This is the path most of us walk. It means not going to very high grits, may or may not slice paper towel, but provides excellent performance in the kitchen. With performance meaning both in terms of slicing and edge retention.
2. Personal pride. This is the path for just really seeing what you can accomplish. This is striving for hair-whittling, atom-splitting edges and obsessing over every detail.
Sure there's overlap between the two but you get the idea. I know my limitations and with freehand sharpening I stay mostly in category one. That isn't to say knives in that category aren't very sharp, they are, but they aren't on the same plane as those done well in category two. It's fun to pursue both if you want. The only point I have in that is that it's okay if your daily driver isn't named Oppenheimer.