I miss the quill stems -- beautiful and strong. The new stems and headsets just always look cheap to me by comparison.

That said, my new bike has Ritchey Pro stem and bar, and they're great. Regarding the OP concern about absorbing the road, I don't want to do that at the stem. I'd rather have that taken care of below (tires, fork). For me, stem and bar should be light and stiff - thus AL. When powering out of the saddle, I want minimal flex in that area for all the leveraging that's going on.