i mean i’m not shrug i’m just a cook so take this with a grain of salt, but
it’s not quite accurate to say that they damage your knives? Like, it’s moreso that they just chew through them like fucken MAD cause of how much metal they scrape off to do their sharpening. that said every kitchen i’ve ever worked at uses them because of the abuse that those knives put up with, so they needed fast sharpening constantly
the biggest thing, honestly, is that you can really use a whetstone (or any other sharpening device) like … once or twice a year? if a knife is good and sharp, and you use it as god intended, then all you really need to do is use a honing steel on it every time you use it. That’s all i do! Their whole purpose largely is just to keep your knives in good working condition. i just give my knives a quick few runs against it and use em and that’s that, and i really don’t need to sharpen them often.