First and foremost: I have absolutely no desire to join the disput or align myself with "one side ore the other" (guys, it´s just knives - admittedly very important amongst the unimportant things
, but, well, just knives).
So what I want is just give my personal opinion on two points (and I might well be wrong) that I find interesting:
1.) Community being an echo chamber: I personally don´t see it like this. In fact, since I joined the forum not so long ago, I have enjoyed to read about the sometimes quite variegating opinions and that most people feel free to state those. And also, when one has no opinion (yet) or no experience concerning a certain issue.
Let´s take myself as an example (just because naturally I can remember my own posts the best, not because I am somewhat good at anything, but rather specifically cause I am quite "average" or probably even below average in knowledge and on this forum):
There are things on which I have strong opinions, cause I have real experience in that speficfic areas and know what works for me and what not
There are other (and very many) things I don´t know a whole lot about. Than I admit that, or ask to gain knowledge.
Latest example: Quite recently I stated in a post, that I think a G10 knife as small as the Native 5 would not need liners imho. I did that and could do so, cause I owned and used that model (quite hard I think).
In the very same post I said, that I would not feel entitled to join the discussion about if a larger G10 folder would also work without liners, simply because I never handled one.
As far as I remember, most people on this forum do exactly like my example above.
But, again, I may be wrong, since I joined that forum like only 8 months ago. Probably what I really want to say (long story short): For me personally that forum is a good place to be, and that would not be the case if I´d experience it beeing an echo chamber. (Pelagic: That´s not meant to be against you. As said, I feel no desire to join the disput. Just my opinion).
2.) "Jogging in the woods in shorts carrying a (lightweight) knife": Admittedly, that scenario is quite a niche for most people. BUT it still is a scenario that matters to some, and I am one of those. I do a lot of trailrunning in shorts, and when doing so, I like to carry a folder that is really light.
On the other hand there very well may be scenarios, where one would want to have a really solid, heavy (and maybe linered) folder. I personally just never really was in such a situation. So I guess that is as much a niche scenario as the "jogging in shorts"-one. And both are equivalent valid or not for me, and for both there should be the perfect knives.