I have only ridden steel and titanium frames. The rides vary a lot. Neither material defines the resulting ride. They are a very real part of it, but so is diameter and wall thicknesses chosen, angles, fork rake, details (esp around the bottom bracket. Then you have the wheels, the tires, seat and post, handlebars and stem ...
Steel frames are all over the place from cushy noodles to so shake your teeth out stiff. Titanium is considerably more compliant, but there also, you can make them very stiff or flexible noodles.
There are builders who will build you a frame of the stiffness you want and others that pride themselves on a "feel" that is their trademark. Bikes are trade-offs of many things and no material can do everything. I love the challenge of coming up with the bike that will do what I want and have had three frames built so far. Now, my driving goal has always been fit and function. Except for my first custom, my namesake Peter Mooney, I told the builder quite specifically what I wanted for fit and steering feel. Those two bikes I absolutely love riding. The first of them however does tend to the wobblies at high speed, getting worse as I am aging. I know a real part of that is what I told the builder to do. (It does however serve very well for very hard rides, very long rides, disappears on climbs, steers exactly like I want and rides and corners no-hands easily. And has all the quirky touches I want on MY bikes.
On the Peter Mooney, I told him conceptually what I wanted, brought in my race bike that fir like a dream (for a racer) and let him go at it. It's a compromise but that was a given. The job of that bike was to get me through the crazy years post life-changing head injury sane. To do that, I might have to ride in any month of the year. Perhaps in the weather that was then happening. I knew I would be living near water but was that going to be Maine? California? A good ride for January in those two states is going to look very different. The resulting Mooney can do both. Not as well as local dialed in bike. And it has. California for its first 6 years Ann Arbor. Seattle, Portland. Pavement. Gravel. Toured. Fix gear. Its handling is a little iffy on rough descents - way too much clearance and too long chainstays mean the rear end is too light, but it does have Peter's famous steering.
Sorry, a bit rambly, but my point is that steel (and ti) are fun because it is so easy to tailor frame using the materials to achieve specific goals. And there are a lot of framebuilders out there. (Mark Nobilette came to mind as soon as I started reading this thread. I haven't ridden his bikes but the ones I've seen were striking. I went to him in my (and his) Ann Arbor days for a tweak for the Mooney and was impressed by him. I'd go to him in a flash if it were not for the fact that I have a good relationship with Peter Mooney and Dave Levy of TiCycles already!
Also, don't get thrown off by people who will tell you a CF bike with 28s is more comfortable than a steel bike with 23s. True. So is the house with the thermostat set at 70F as oppose to the one set at 60F. My Mooney on 28s is to die for (now that I am running it fix gear so rear end skittters on turns isn't an issue. I hit pedals first!) On race tubulars, it was a near race bike. Great ride but not cushy! (If you go custom - you get to choose what tires you want!. I've run the Mooney on 38 front, 35 rear. I could run a 38 in back but the fix gear requirement makes it less than ideal. With those big tires, the ride is comfortable!!)