Only you can answer that, I guess it depends whether you race to win or not, whether you will base your choices on that or something else. Few people win so the rest might as well stand out for something.

The steel is real thing, sorta reaches into a viceral macho sense that steel is associated with the non-fake manufactured world. You know, like a Jeniffer Beals movie or something. But aluminum is very much there. Think of a WWII fighter plane, or the frame on a 1911 Comander. Biking is this sissy kind of thing where the top drawer is occupied by Italian fashion and manufacturing excellence. Lugged steel, then maybe brazed steel, oh god welded steel, and the rest is un-mentionable. But that ain't the american way (With aluminum from Canada).