There are lots of reasons why you might buy a hand saw; the look, the history, the fun of restoration. But at the top of the list, sometimes must be to simply cut some timber.
Now I like saws. I have a goodly collection of Veritas back saws and Japanese pull saws which I use for joinery. But I get my timber mostly in rough sawn slabs and sometimes in 8 by 4 sheets. Little joinery saws are not much use for the initial breaking down of the larger bits. So I use a panel saw.
(More sensitive people may wish to log onto some other site now.)
About 10 years ago I bought a cheap ($10) hard point panel saw from Mitre 10. For ten years I have cut up boxing for concreting sheds, cut all sorts of sheet materials, docked slabs to manageable lengths. It still cuts okay but today I lashed out and paid $12 for a Barcho 7 TPI panel saw. I cuts just fine, cross and rip. I know the old saws look nice and work just fine. But I wonder if the original manufactures of theses saws would have made the saws the way they did if they had had access to the cheap efficient materials to make saws and methods of building them, that are available today.
I know that none of this is relevant to those who are passionate about their favourite saw. But the question is worth asking I think.