+1 on this. It's hard to give advice on this topic not knowing how you plan to use your truck. In all honesty, I've seen a lot of vehicles with bull bars that just don't need them. And that is fine if that is the look they want, but when you consider that adding the bull bar adds wait and sometimes requires suspension upgrade, it quickly becomes a very expensive exercise in making a truck look cool. So you have to decide what look you want and what you want to do with the truck and also how much you are willing to spend to achieve those goals. Personally, I do as little as I can to make the vehicle do exactly what I want it to do. But that's just me. Tell us how you drive it, how much time you spend on pavement vs dirt vs rock/mud. Do you want comfort or straight off road prowess or a mix? Are you getting yourself in winchable situations? How often do you find yourself needing more clearance? Where, geographically, do you drive it off road (is there mud, rock, slick rock, sand). Do you see where I am going with this? We can all impart our own personal opinions on you but ultimately, without knowing what you specifically intend to do with the truck, our advice is really quite useless as it pretty much pertains to what we think you will do. Or perhaps what we hope you will do.
It wont be a pavement princess. I want it to be capable. I plan on trips to Moab and such and parks. I plan on offroad trails and camping from it with sustainment. I plan to do an awning and use ground tents until I can do an offroad trailer. I will use it to go on hunting trips too. I basically plan on not questioning where I can go more of just how soon can i make this trip happen or when kinda deal. My worry with aluminum is, yes its more expensive but is it worth it? The lighter weight is great obviously but it wouldnt hold up as well as steel i would presume.