Wow, as always, I'm impressed with the depth of knowledge here.

I also had no idea there were books on the subject. I may check those out!

Anyway, I have always favored simple steels, but my experience with these chisels just drives home the point even more for me.
I'm sure that additives make a steel slightly more abrasion resistant and therefore longer lasting, and make it easier to quench without warping, etc...
But, when the end product is concerned, you're trading just slightly more edge retention for a 3-4X easier time sharpening and grinding, and the ability to take a really screaming good edge. The slight edge retention gained at the cost of several times the ease of sharpening and touching up the tool, is a net negative by and large for many modern steels in my book, especially when it comes to chisels, which one easily take to a stone or strop without interrupting one's workflow (I appreciate edge retention somewhat more in planes, which require setting up again before returning to work).

These things are just so easy to sharpen even in comparison to O1. I'm truly impressed.

I'll have to try some nice Japanese white paper steel chisels too, at some point. I have the feeling I'll be quite fond of them.