I am not a designer; just an old housewife, but I have had granite and while it is fairly durable, versatile and beautiful, I find it a little over-rated. It knicks, chips and scratches just like they tell you soapstone will so I am not sure as far as durability goes which would be considered better. Quartz is most of the good things to do with stone, but is quite pricey. I don't think it is as pretty as natural stone. We have had a marble slab in the kitchen for about 10 years installed for pouring out candy and rolling dough on and I love how it looks. (You do need to remind people not to cut on it, but you shouldn't cut on any stone really, for the knife's sake!)
We are builing a new house and despite lots of arguments from everyone from my kids to the cabinet maker and builder(who are all young I might add)we are putting soapstone on the kitchen perimeter and carrara marble on the island. We will have a honed surface on both. I love th patina of a well loved space and we fully intend to cook and bake on both of the surfaces. I will be interested to see how they hold up and wear.