Funny story - I bought the aluminum handle just for the looks, but then I forgot about it and it was sitting in a drawer for a year. Then one day I broke off the old plastic and gladly remembered that I already have a replacement
20 minutes later I’m back in business. Fast forward couple weeks and steel cable for the hood release snaps right at the handle! When I got it out it was frayed and rusty. Then I got new assembly, and now my aluminum handle is once again sitting in the drawer (although it’s painted like an original now)
What I got out of my experience with the hood release is that if it’s in a good condition (cable moves freely, not frayed, not corroded, latch is lubed, etc) plastic handle is fine, probably even after 30 years of service. But when you need extra effort to work that hood latch (because it’s dirty/rusty/whatever), it
will snap eventually. Me replacing plastic with aluminum was more like putting a bandaid on already stressed cable, that only lasted few more weeks.