IMO, knives are just like audio equipment and many other material objects - mainly snob value.
At home, we have a Zwilling, a Fiskars, an Ikea and an ultra cheapo Chinese stamped steel knife
(akin to maybe an Ajanta watch 
) that is more than 35 years old. Without exception, everyone at home uses the Chinese knife while the other ones gather dust in some drawer. I can't even remember when I last saw the unused ones in the drawers.
I'm a weekend cook and do both - vegetarian as well as non-vegetarian dishes and NOT ONCE has the thought of using some other knife instead of the cheap one cross my mind. It's sharp and hence cuts perfectly, what else is needed in a knife? It's used for slicing bread, cutting meat, veggies, fruit - basically everything that needs cutting/chopping in the kitchen.
I think the biggest mistake people do is to not invest in a whetstone for sharpening and instead give knives to the local "dhaarwala" who will ruin the knife edge - guaranteed! Give him a laser hardened, a carbon steel, a diamond edged or whatever knife and he will massacre the edge.
I have taken cheapness to a new low - don't even have a whetstone; I use a small stone that was left behind by some marble tile polishing workers - looks like soapstone and has 2 perfectly flat surfaces. 2 swipes of the stone on both the edges of the knife and done! Been doing that for more years than I care to remember and never have I ever cursed the cheap knife though I curse everything else when I botch up in the kitchen.
