Since none of the forum's acknowledged knife experts have yet addressed your question I'll chime in. The terms you list is a bit of a mixed bag containing marketing terms, design terms, and a complete misnomer. "Steels" hone rather than sharpen.
Focus your understanding on the three primary materials of honing rods: steel, ceramic, and diamond. There are glass rods also but they are akin to the smooth "packer" steel in terms of usage despite different materials used.
The following is one of the web resources discussing honing rods. I find it to match with my experience except for the comment on steel honing rods being incompatible with Japanese knives. Painting J-knives with a single brush stroke may be a bit too broad.
There are many other web resources you can easily find with a quick search.
I've found both ceramic and smooth metal (sometimes called "butcher" or "packer") honing rods somewhat useful with double-edge Western-style Japanese knives in VG-10 steel if used very gently. Not better than honing with a very fine stone but good enough when time does not permit that approach.
Other opinions exist, of course, so get educated and use your best judjenment!
One thing about using a honing rod that TV really misrepresents is how they are used. The usage should be slower and more decisive and only with very light pressure. That flailing a knife against a honing rod may be dramatic but is complete nonsense... and would likely lead to chipping a harder steel knife.
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