Not all satin knives are LE's, and not all LE knives are satin... at least a few Busse LE's have been coated, although I haven't seen any new releases of coated LE blades in the short time I've been around.

Satin can be easier to clean, and some prefer uncoated blades for working with food. I personally like satin OR coated - doesn't really matter to me. Satin usually costs a fair bit more, so I end up going with coated because I'm a cheapskate. For example, I REALLY REALLY liked the design of the SAR8 that was released by Busse recently, but the satin and DC versions cost too much for me, so I didn't get one, since they decided not to offer one of their absolute best camp knife designs in a coated finish <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />