I'm no expert but once spent ~30 mins researching how to properly sharpen knives. Everything I watched said you needed a sharpening stone, and that a 'knife sharpening steel' is basically useless.
During a long stay in a serviced apartment with only 1 (very blunt) chef's knife, I tried the sharpening steel and it took the knife from completely blunt to razor sharp in 1 minute flat.
So looking back, I suspect those videos were talking down sharpening steels because they're abundant and cheap, and those same videos were probably trying to peddle expensive sharpening stones..
