What? Radical! Heretic! Burn you at the stake! LOL
Phaedrus, I'm starting to like you a lot!

Seriously, we all agree that a knife is a useful and important tool. And I think I made clear that don't really care if people buy the most expensive knife in the shop, provided their budget allows it. But I do get mildly amused/annoyed when folks start implying that one should buy a $150+ knife, when a Mora will serve quite adequately. (Which is probably why I'm wasting time on this thread, rather than getting ready for an upcoming trip.)

Personally, I seldom carry a fixed blade at all anymore. I do a fair bit of mucking around wild country in Alaska and other parts of the west, both winter and summer. Most of the time I only have a plain vanilla Swiss Army Knife in my pocket. (And usually a small Gerber LST in the junk bag in the bottom of my pack.) About the only time anymore that I routinely carry a fixed blade is when I'm sea kayaking, where I have a fixed blade river knife on my PFD.

While I'm on a rant, I think people get a bit too hung up on locking mechanisms for folders. I've been carrying a pocket knife since I was about five, and I'm now well into my seventh decade. I have yet to injure myself by accidently closing a blade on my fingers. Used properly, a folding knife shouldn't require a locking mechanism. Nice, but hardly essential.

And I can only recall breaking a knife blade one time. I once broke the tip off of a nice little Kershaw knife. But I was clearly abusing the blade, trying to use it as a small pry bar.

Bottom line? Buy at least a decent quality blade. If you want, and can afford it by all means buy a more expensive blade. Either because you think it works better for you, or you just like the nicer knife. But people shouldn't get hung up thinking they will die if they don't have $150 knife in their kit.

/rant