Barrel steel is hard if you're comparing it to a piece of pine. As steel goes it is comparatively soft. The brazing of either a chopper or dovetail lump joining will assure it doesn't have much residual heat treatment if it had it to start with. A dovetail lump can be made (& normally are I believe) from a higher carbon stel which will be harder even in its softened state. There are few instances where a given feature is better than its competitors on all counts. There are virtually always compromises. I've never had a problem with a dovetail lump, or even a conventional lump without the dovetail for that matter.
