Well, would you blindly replace an M6 hardened steel bolt with some M6 decorative brass bolt?
Read the data sheets. I feel no pity, sorry.
By the way, i'll take the bait.
Your example is misleading, because any fool on the planet (except for colorblind people, sadly) is capable of seeing the color difference, even if they do not know the name of the material nor their properties.
Actually, your example is even not that bad ... as you say "hardened steel", instead of O1 or A2 or whatever.
Which would actually prove your own point, that we should be more aware and watchful.
My point was not about learning the difference in the material.
But the fact that if you shop for A2 tool steel, and got O1 delivered, either be it because some idiot put the wrong label on it, or mis-sorted it in the bins,
or because the order instructions were not clear enough (having a capital i mistaken for a lowercase L, or a zero for an 0)
then you would not know a thing looking at it, or using it,
except if you were actually expecting differences.
That was my point : if it looks like a duck, sounds like a duck, is should be clear that it
is a freaking duck, not a chicken.
Just my 2 cents, but to each one his opinion