I think that, in a kitchen setting, the factors that would determine the most extreme level of attainable sharpness are moot. Carbide size, etc. Kind of a non issue since kitchen knives sharpened up to a grit where the largest depression in the steel's surface is equal or lesser than the size of a particle in the steel...doesn't cut well often, and almost never lasts beyond a few foods.
To me, the qualities that make good steel good are how LONG it holds it's edge. After a day at work, you can't do a comfortable shave with the knives I've used at work for years...but that doesn't mean they don't still breeze through food.
Not sure how we would even test this, since there isn't a cost-effective, realistic means of sharpening a blade to that kind of comparative extreme.