Hawaiian Steel Tunings often use compound chord tunings to allow major, minor and extended types of chords--you have to learn which group of strings gives you which chord, and of course, what it's relationship is to the full chord--you actually need to know note names and scales, because a steel player is responsible for playing a lot of fills and melody as well-- Some steel players have used up to four 8-string necks with different tunings--or the have pedals and knee bars that change the tuning--

All in all, there is an incredible amount if information to keep track of, which is probably why good steel players are scarce--