I don't think there are any benefits to a patina with anytype of high carbon steel knife. It doesn't really do much besides darken the steel.

It doesn't really do much as in it's not a protective coating under use. CnD did a patina on his Custom Ranger (a very good one BTW) and it still rusted during use. 5160 is a rust magnet steel but SR-101 should be even more (higher carbon content).

As far a durability, it is actually quite durable. CnD did a lot of chopping that day (mainly cedar and pine) and the patina was unaffected, granted there were lots of rust spots on the knife.

Then again... we were in a rain forest and you can probably guess the cause of all that rusting. However, I've had my RMD in a moist environment for a week (slightly wet sheath from a wet trip into the forest) and had very little rust on the exposed edge (this was before the mirror polishing of HD, mind you).

If you plan on using a patina-ed blade, don't. It won't protect against corrosion that well. A normal crinkle coat is still much better. I'm not really sure about hot-bluing but I've seen well done blued knives have their coating very easily worn off after some good use (chopping wood).