I agree with the fact that steps are just a raw estimation of an activity while compared with all the other kind of metrics our watch can display. However, it sound strange that such “nearly-useless” metric is reported in the SA Daily Health section and can be also shown as a complication in the watchfaces, but cannot be added into a customized sport mode.
@ScottBH7 as a workaround you can simply divide the total walk length for your average step length (about 0.7m), which however depends on your height, your speed, the way you walk … that’s why step count isn’t a good metric!