You're right that's a hobby. But the hobby's definition of "proper maintenance" and what it "requires" is basically just people nerding out about things that don't matter the slightest in the real world.

To maintain a kitchen knife so that it cuts a tomato without squishing it, you don't need a book on knife science. Further, that nerdery is probably actively harmful, because instead of simple solutions, people are told they need an inspection microscope and a variety of jigs and other implements. So they buy an objectively bad electric sharpener and move on.

Properly maintaining a knife does. Most people don't need to properly maintain a knife. You can do it good enough with a honing steel and some crappy automatic sharpener.

I enjoy cooking good food for my family and myself, but cooking is not a hobby of mine. So if my knife can slice a tomato without crushing it, then that's good enough for me. I don't need to shave a tomato so thin that the slice is transparent.

Does the crappy automatic sharpener work? Well the knife cuts better after I use it, so yes, it does.

I can attest to this as I have improved knifes day one of trying despite my lack of any sort of skill

Because that is just general maintenance to me.

If you don't put your good knives in the dishwasher and wash/dry them right after usage, they'll last a long time.

This is enough to get your knives to be sharp enough to shave hair.

Time investment is more individual. It took me about 3 hours to get good enough.

minor pain to clean, but MUCH faster than a knife, totally safe (pusher keeps fingers away from the blade) and you get precise thickness cuts every time, which means they cook precisely too.

Especially good for vegetables like potatoes, onion, eggplant, etc.

here's a closer look at it with a microscope. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4ReQ83CZOQ

With that all you need to do is pretty much go back and forth. Note that the whetstone eventually wears them out too.

Something to grab while you're at it, is a truing stone to take care of the whetstone as it _will_ wear out unevenly making the sharpening a pain.

Biggest advantages is that you don't need to pre-soak them and diamond stones don't develop a valley / have to be flattened.

if you plan on getting into sharpening I would just start with a coarse, fine, and extra fine diamond stone and a leather strop w/ stropping compound.