I know, been there done that! BUT, if I’m not mistaken, the end game is whether or not knife will do the job at hand, not if it has a pristine edge at some god awful magnification.
I have a kitchen knife that I sharpened on my Wicked Edge two or three years ago. Since then I hone it with a steel every few days. It will still cut a tomato.
So I will give a lonely thumbs up for the honing steel.
As for those photos of all the damage to the edge remember they are greatly magnified. I would imagine if you put a just mirror edge sharpened blade under high enough magnification, it would look terrible!
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