I have quite a collection of oil, water, and diamond stones. I usually sharpen my kitchen knives on a simple V sharpener made with two 1000 grit ceramic rods from Lee Valley, set in a wooden base. That plus stropping and occasional steeling will keep them adequately sharp for years. Chisels and plane blades get a little extra attention.
Except some people don’t care, they just want to cook stuff, as in the article I linked to. The old knife grinder with his hand-cranked wheel has been a fixture in cities for centuries, probably millennia. Telling people they are wrong for not doing their own sharpening on a flat stone is like the car enthusiasts who crop up regularly to tell folks that they aren’t real drivers if they don’t have a stick shift or change their own oil.
I was in Cambodia a couple of years ago, and in the variety stores there you could buy a plastic-handled Chinese-style chef’s knife for a dollar US, or a blister pack of three different knives for about two dollars. Interestingly, on the shelf besides the knives there were usually sharpening stones for sale.
