All points well taken. I wouldn't have considered buying an Outcast were it not for the fact that Mike Stewart is a big fan of that knife. And by his own admission, he won't manufacture knives in D2. Apparently he doesn't care too much for that alloy. So Kershaw must have gotten it right.
You can read Mike's comments here if you're interested:
http://www.knifeforums.com/forums/showpost.php?post/1870825/By the way, the biggest complaint I've heard about the Outcast is that it doesn't arrive very sharp from the factory. A few minutes on the grinder can fix that, however.
I handled an Outcast at a gun show once and while the handle had good ergos like most of Ken Onions designs, I was also not a fan of the grip material and how the grip was made.
Aside from that, I will assume that based on certain people having used them Kershaw managed to get good results out of the D2.
I have seen Swamp Rat D2 take some pretty sever abuse. So, there might be a trick to getting D2 to provide toughness.
But, I still have to wonder if D2 can offer as good an all-round package of the level of toughness needed for that size a blade AND provide good edge quality compared to the simple cheaper carbon steels.
