For sure. I'm just speaking from my experience that 1 good knife sharpener is the very best dollar to performance ratio purchase you will ever make and the work sharp bench stone is priced low enough to be, potentially, both the first and last knife sharpener someone ever buys. And man... some shitty walmart knives are just the things to learn how to use it with. They're made of enough real steel that they won't flex like the crap you get at the grocery store, but they're also crappy enough that they won't retain an edge for very long and you'll get some practice in with them. And a set of walmart knives is about $30 meaning if someone is rebuying walmart kitchen knives once a year, after 3 years they will have saved money (and material waste), not to mention some sickos out there are going to enjoy it. I don't enjoy sharpening knives, but I know of people who do actually get satisfaction from it.

But yes. If it's between buying bad knives every year, or buying bad knives and a bad sharpener and getting by for 2 years, the bad knives and the bad sharpener WILL save you money.