@EShin, thank you for your well articulated response. It helps to allay much of my concerns with using carbon steel knives.
To answer your question, no, I have not had any prior experience with carbon steels, but I've read plenty of horror stories about them, tragedies that I wish to avoid if at all possible. All 10 years of my experience in the kitchen has been limited to mostly cheap stainless steels (440C, 8Cr13MoV, and VG10/Max?).
It is possible that I may be overestimating the problem(s) presented by reactive steels. If the problem really is minimal as you say, and if enough people chime in as you did, I think I could be persuaded to give carbon steel knives a chance.
Unlike some people, I would never put kitchen knives in the sink along with unwashed dishes. I am usually careful to treat my knives as if they're delicate razor blades, even going so far as to use refined cutting techniques to a point that'll leave minimal impact on the cutting board and on the blade. Knives are tools used for prepping food, and I give them the proper respect that they deserve ... although I have been guilty of leaving my knives unwashed on the cutting board a few times in the past. But that was only because I was using fully stainless steels. Had those been carbon steel knives, I wouldn't dare to be negligent, not even for a minute.
I've had some experience with ZDP189. My small pocket knife, Spyderco Dragonfly 2, is made of this alloy. It glides through cardboards and junk mails effortlessly and I can attest firsthand to its superb edge retention. Being a small pocket knife, however, the kind of force and stress the blade is subjected to doesn't come anywhere close to those of big cutlery knives.
The cutlery bevels are typically much more acute than the secondary bevel on my Dragonfly 2. If I were to prep food with ZDP189 cutlery, my foremost concern would be chipping of the edge due to its brittleness. ZDP189's edge retention may be superb, but the stability of the edge at acute angles is notoriously poor. This is the reason why knife manufacturers such as Rockstead use 30 deg. angle (inclusive) at the apex to minimize the risk of chipping.
My secondary concern with using ZDP189 cutlery would be its critical vulnerability to acids. When ZDP189 comes in contact with acidic food, even a mild one, it will stain rapidly and noticeably. The effort required to remove those stains will be considerable depending on one's response time. Let the stain and juice from a mild acid stay on the metal for not even an hour, and you will be looking at irreparable and permanent damage to the blade in the form of highly visible pitting corrosion.
If it weren't for these two critical weaknesses, I would go out and buy a ZDP nakiri right now. And there are several manufacturers offering ZDP189 nakiri. But given my concerns with this alloy, I question the wisdom of using ZDP189 cutlery. The fact that I haven't heard any stories from others who have tried doesn't help, either.