Bill Tindall, E.Tn.
I can bash according to what the wood will endure and not be concerned with the chisel damage. It removes one more concern in getting a drawer made.

To put it more delicately, I can feel what the chisel is doing that is bad- crowding the baseline or deflecting from the lateral force on the bevel- and adjust the mallet force to approach these limits without exceeding them, and not be limited by steel properties. The wood controls my work not the cost of the chisel.

(I prefer the bashing version.)

The primary factors governing these forces are probably wood properties and chisel bevel. I remain skeptical frictional differences are significant.