I understand better where you are coming from, I apologize for anything uncomfortable I may have said.

Back to the pearlite...
Pearlite is a layered structure of ferrite and cementite. Cementite is iron carbide. Cementite forms at two different times, during the cooling of austenite, and during the tempering of martensite. The cementite forms pearlite or bainite when it layers with ferrite at different temperatures. The carbides in cementite provide the hardness, while the ferrite (basically pure iron with very little dissolved iron) is tougher.

True damascus has been speculated to be visible grains of carbide and ferrite forged into patterns. Today we still don't know how such large layers of cementite and ferrite were made, possibly with alloying elements that increase the size of the grain structure.

I suppose martensite and cementite have similar strength/brittleness, however the cementite when laminated with ferrite is less brittle than a fully martensitic steel.

More thoughts on ferrite/cementite and Silver Steel

When austenite is formed at the CT the amount of carbon in the structure is about .8%. Silver steel has a carbon content of about 1-1.2% I need to do further research, but I believe the excess carbon atoms form more carbide, producing a higher carbide to ferrite ratio id est a harder steel. As mentioned I need to research this further, but that seems like a plausible explanation of Silver Steel's extreme hardness.