What is it about S30V that people don’t like?
People like options, and lately, Benchmade has become fairly polarized in their choice of steel across their product line. It may not be that people
don't like it...it might just be that there are better and more up-to-date options that aren't being offered by the company that used to be at the forefront of knife tech.
Why is it not sufficient?
I think you answered your own question... You listed a lower-end steel and said it "does fine" for you, which should indicate that a better steel like S30V would be fine for you as well. If all purchases are based on them being "sufficient", we'd never have a reason to like anything else. What is sufficient to you is boring to me. I don't want sufficient. I want the
best of the current market options, and S30V is
not that. It might cost Benchmade >$2/knife in materials and manufacturing to spec the Bugout in M390. I'd happily pay another $10 for an M390 Bugout. Hell, throw in some M4 or even crazier stuff like K390, 10V, or Rex45. The knives Spyderco makes in those steels sell out in
minutes for a reason.
If I was about to buy a BMW and the salesman gave me the choice of a 150 hp engine (sufficient) or a 350 hp engine for a negligible price difference, I know which one I'd take.
How would a higher end blade steel suit you better?
Edge retention, edge stability, and getting my moneys worth. Higher-end steels
far surpass S30V in edge retention, and Ankerson's testing proves this. S30V isn't a high-end steel anymore, and shouldn't be advertised as such. The bar has been raised several times in the stainless and non-stainless categories, and the consumers (us) want the newer better stuff. Other manufacturers are rolling out M390/S110V/M4 knives for less money than most of the S30V knives Benchmade is putting out. Benchmade is still using the same blade steel that Gerber and Buck are using, and I'm fairly certain that isn't a brand association that the Benchmade marketing department was aiming for.
/rant