I still see it as a way of cutting. splitting, I think is cutting.
but besides that...

I guess "bad" heat treat isn't quite the word for it. but i don't see wood as a very hard medium and I just don't think if your going with the grain of it that there is even much compression on the blade.
but I guess it depends.

and as far as the wood goes... he never really said what kind and if it was really hard wood I think he would have mentioned it.

okay... so, if you took a log and layed it sideways and batoned through it that way (like you would to bring a small tree down) I think that theory about compression certainly applies.

I'm talking about the lock and stuff because, I just said if anything thats what I would expect to fail, and thats why batoning isn't normally done with folders.

I just think a really hard brittle edge has almost no beneftis. it MAY hold an edge longer, but if you can't even split wood with it, thats annoying.