I believe that was explained. I get various reviews mixed up. Stumpy, Rex, WbW etc. Just like all their instructionals, everyone has slightly different methods so you need to take it all in and see what makes sense to you. As an example, in most tests, a tuned Wood River bench plane is preferred to a late Stanley, but I find when I reach for a #4, somehow I grab my type 16 instead of the fancy new W-R. Maybe the weight is just alien to me even if it works better.
Methods sure do matter. When I started, the top option was an Ark. black. I still have it but not sure why. Slow does not even begin to describe it. Went to Spyderco and Coors ceramics. Not much better. Suffered with "scary" until I bit the bullet and got a set of DMT. Better, but still not happy. Added a 16000 Shapton. Now I am happy. I don't think I have enough years left to flatten and polish a 1 inch chisel on the old Norton oil and hard black.
Stuart,
They were not wrong for many decades. Over a century even. Then quality ( Irwin buyout and Blue chip went south) and advances in metallurgy changed everything. Cryo treating, automated heat treating, more precise CNC machining etc. and look at the differences between the offerings in plane irons with traditional and the new Veritas alloy. I believe I recently saw a review and both H-T and 2 Cherries were now middle of the pack for carving tools. Even my 1970 era Marples morticing chisels are a parallelogram, not square in cross section. Just enough to effect chopping a mortice.* My same vintage yellow handle Marples get as sharp as can be, but edge retention compared to my Narlex is almost a joke.
Now, across all the prestige brands, we are really just arguing between the best of the best.
*I am considering looking for a machine shop that can grind them square to the next smaller size. I don't use the big half inch that much anyway.