As far as everyday steels, all the steels you mentioned -- 8A, 440C, 154CM -- are fine steels. 154CM is more wear resistant and stronger, so it will normally hold an edge longer but be a bit more difficult to sharpen than the other two. I agree with the crew, "best steel" depends on your use. And if you're not good at sharpening, that does come into play, although I'd argue that you should invest the time to learn to sharpen.
In fact, I take it a step further: you should think twice about spending the extra money to get the top-tier steels if you don't take advantage of those steels' properties when you sharpen.
Here's an example: I can buy a knife made from ATS-34 at 60 Rc or M-2 at 62 Rc. I'm not a good sharpener, so whichever knife I buy, I'll just leave it at the factory edge of 18 degrees per side. Is it really worth paying more for the M-2 knife? Will it perform that much better? Well, the M-2 knife will hold its edge a bit longer, no doubt. But with each knife sharpened at 18 degrees per side, each knife will cut with the exact same performance. But if I take advantage of the M-2 blade's better toughness and strength, I could re-profile the M-2 knife down to 13-degrees per side (can't do that with my ATS-34 blade, it will chip!). And now when I test my 18-per-side ATS-34 blade versus my 13-per-side M-2 blade -- dang, now I can see why I bought the better steel. It's because the ATS-34 blade takes 3 cuts to do what the M-2 blade does in one.
Depending on what you use your knife for, having a "better steel" isn't just about wear resistance, it's about toughness and hardness as well. A harder knife can take a thinner edge without rolling or indenting, and that means you can re-profile to a higher-performance edge. Do you doubt this would make much difference? I have a long article where I tested my Benchmade 710 with the factory edge, and then after I re-profiled it on the sharpener, and when I was done, the new edge cut 8 times as deep -- that's 1 cut where I would have had to have taken 8 cuts.
The more you take advantage of a better steel in your sharpening plan, the bigger difference you'll see between steels. That's what justifies the extra money for better steels! You want to see the difference reflected in cutting performance, and not just the marginal difference in strength, toughness, and wear resistance.
Joe