This is interesting as I just sold my entire collection of Shapton Glass hones to bekk, and replaced them with a 1K Pro Naniwa and the 3K 5K 8K and 12K Naniwa SS hones. I did not do this because the Shaptons were no good, in fact they are terrific hones. But... when I got the 12K Naniwa a couple of months ago, I instantly fell in love with the softer feel of the hone vs the harder Shapton hones, and so I lusted for the switch, which is entirely a personal preference thing.
It's all in what you, as an individual, like. If you *like* the feel and action of a King hone, and it does the job that needs to be done, there is absolutely no reason to use something else.
In the great scheme of things, we are very fortunate to live in a time where we not only have oodles of choices, but the disposable income to purchase what we want. 50 or more years ago, the situation would have been very different. In fact, the choices we have today in DE blades for example, is amazing, back in 2005 I can only recall about 5 different brand blades being available, now I'm sure there are well over 100.
Of course I can go back to the days when the TV only received one channel, and it was in B&W... then came the dreaded torment of having to get up off the sofa, walk over to the television to see what was on the other two channels. The only remote you could get back then was the "Honey, could you change the channel for me?" one. Now, I will admit... when it worked, it could also start your car when it was cold, serve beer and snacks while you watched the TV etc. but it was very finicky and often refused to work. It also required way more than a couple of AA batteries... things like chocolate, flowers, jewellery, new dresses and shoes, and the list goes on.
Seasons greetings,
Kaptain "Tongue in cheek" Zero