David Weaver
I agree with what you're saying, but some of it also has to do with my own technique (there was a huge blowout thread on the UK forum a couple of years ago about this - you'd be surprised how many people were bright red outraged when they found out that not everyone agreed with their mortise technique).

There is a school of straight in mortisers vs. bevel riders who really like fast penetration, and the profile I've seen on some 1900 or so pigstickers in good condition shows sort of a unicorn that's just a good horse (the primary bevel is much shallower than the secondary roundover, but the roundover is very long compared to what we're doing here).

So, it would be a fair comment for someone to say "you stole this from the way some old pigstickers are set up", even though I really stole it from the knife people. But they are both on the same page.

I do like using a tiny bit of this on the end of a bevel riding mortiser, though - it does little to increase cut resistance and you can pretty much mortise until you can't stand up. It doesn't seem to be enough just at the very tip to change the experience of bevel riding, either.

I think you'll find as you go to bevel edge chisels and parers, this really comes alive.