John in NM
There are plenty of modern steels that are quite as easy to sharpen as Japanese chisel steels - you just need to use diamonds. I could just as easily tell you that I refuse to consider Japanese chisels because I can't sharpen them on the oil stones I already have (no idea if that would be true or not, just turning your reasoning around).

That you can't sharpen a chisel with your existing stones may quite reasonably influence your purchasing decisions, but that does not invalidate the whole question for the rest of us, who may well be at a point where a sharpening method upgrade is overdue

I agree however, that if the LV offerings can pair edge life with universal ease of sharpening, they'll have a winner - how could they not?