That's exactly what I've seen in using a smooth (polished) steel to maintain some of my kitchen knives in low-alloy stainless. I keep them pretty thin at the edge; when used for fruits & veggies on a poly cutting board, which doesn't induce much wear on the edge, they hold up for quite a long time when steeled on the smooth rod. But there comes a time when I'll start noticing the edge getting weak from repeated realigning over that time; it rolls much too easily, even in simple tasks like cutting paper or under pressure from my thumbnail. And the smooth steel rod can't fix that. That's when I lightly scrub the apex off on a stone and reset the edge. Then it's back to several more weeks of use, with just the smooth steel doing the upkeep. That approach has been working very well for me.
I've even starting using the smooth steel to de-burr and/or align a fresh edge on knives in similar steels, straight from resharpening on a stone. When a newly-created burr rolls to one side and is easily detected by feel or in paper-cutting tests for sharpness, it's easy to see how the steel rod cleans up and straightens the edge after a few passes. I've actually come to prefer this over stropping, on the knives that respond to it, as there's no risk of rounding, blunting or over-polishing the new apex this way, as can happen on a loaded strop.
I want to take the occasion to thank you for your posts on this forum where you commented on the high Vanadium blades responding differently to common abrasives versus diamond. It is reading them that pushed me to design this SET testing.
Back to steeling - I only have to add that professional boners steel slowly and very gently, just 2 passes each side on a smooth/polished facet of the steel rod. They all use a combination square steeling "rod" with polished and abrasive facets, and when the apex comes to its weak point that you've described, they give it a few strokes on the abrasive facet.
I don't suppose the operators read Verhoeven's study, but they steel exactly as per Verhoeven recommendation.
Steeling is the main skill that creates difference between the Grade 5 and Grade 3 boning operators; in our meat plant assessment, with the skilled Grade 5 operators it is not unusual to see the sharpness scores going higher in the last hour of using the knife thanks to the correct steeling.
Below is an excerpt from a feedback of the skilled one:
" I worked in boning rooms for many years and now have been sharpening knives full-time the past twenty years.
When working in the boning rooms as a boner, after sharpening my knife it needed to shave after steeling for necessary sharpness to work with.
Steeling is necessary to get through the day. Correct steel use is a major skill needed to maintain the edge."
BTW, later this week on the BESS forum we are posting a PDF of the article in the Australian Meat News about our research at a meat plant that among other data has sharpness scores by steeling skills.