No catastrophies to report, but I would observe that plain old carbon steel seemed to work quite well for many years, even centuries. CS just needs sharpening more often.

Knife sharpening is not that hard. The easy way is to buy a Spyderco Sharpmaker (no affiliation, just a satisfied user). It isn't that large, but it is a bit clumsy for backpacking. For the small sharpeners that are good (and there are quite a few that are not) you need to learn how to hand sharpen - a skill that can be acquired in between the commercial breaks of Dancing With the Stars, although I'll bet you are more of a PBS person.....