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Buy it for life | This versatile Japanese chef’s knife has lasted longer than some of my relationships
(www.theguardian.com)
Basically anything short of a stamped metal boning knife is "buy for life" if you actually know how to sharpen it. No, not the grinders but a whetstone. And then just hone it (optimally every time you use it... so like once every other month).
Different metals will dull/misalign faster but basically no home chef will really have to worry about that. It is only really an issue when you are dicing dozens of pounds of veg a day (so restaraunt and some recipe developers). And the big difference there is just that you are sharpening once or twice a week instead of two or three times a year.
The real benefit to a more expensive knife is almost always balance and ergonomics of the handle. And unless you know what you want, you are just going to waste a lot of money.
Saying "this knife is buy it for life" is like saying "this hammer is buy it for life".
One other caveat. A lot of people will see a youtube chef cut through the joint of a chicken leg or carve out the spine or something similar. Unless you know what you are doing, that is where those cheap stamped metal boning knives come in handy. THAT is how you chip and break a blade because you weren't actually cutting through the cartilage (?) connecting the joints and were instead hacking through the bones themselves.
