Lots of reasonable recommendations have been made, but one thing I'd like to point out is that something can be excellently constructed and a good performer, but if you want to replace it in time for something prettier then I'd struggle to call it BIFL. The Victorinox Fibrox and Zwilling Twin Master are both excellent blades capable of decades worth of home use, but for some people they simply aren't what they want their main kitchen tool to look like.

For a gift, I'd also caution against extra hard steels on some Japanese blades like the VG-10 of the Tojiro DP or the more exotic Shuns and Miyabis. Hard steels are great for those who are prepared for them, but they also need to be treated differently as their hardness equates to brittleness and leaves them susceptible to large chips in cases where softer steels would suffer a rolled edge. I think HRC 56-58 is a good sweet spot.

Given that my previous recommendation of the Fujiwara FKM has seemingly been suffering from consistency issues, perhaps my recommendation would be the AUS-8 steel Gesshin Stainless yo-gyuto if it ever comes back in stock.