Today's knife market offers and embarrassment of riches. You can get some amazing high performance steels and there are myriad reasons to do so. The price of the upgraded steels is actually is pretty good. At the other end of the spectrum it's probably never been cheaper to get a decent, serviceable 'entry level' steel. You don't need to obsess over the exact steel but for those wanting to find knives with better physical properties there's a good selection at any price point.

I have plenty of cheap knives but I fall apologetically into the knife/steel-nerd camp.