I've been running steel wheels on all my vehicles since forever. A lot easier to straighten a steel wheel than to weld a busted aluminum one.
I used to think that way too but not in many years.
My TJ spends most of its time on trails that are nothing but rocks and I switched from aluminum to steel in 2002 for nearly two years years. Big mistake. I spent more time pounding dents out of those steel wheels so they'd hold air than I could believe. I went back to aluminum in 2004.
My experience was that steel DEFINITELY dents and bends more easily on trails like than aluminum which is why so few serious rock crawlers run steel wheels any more. In my nearly 22 years of rock crawling, which is mostly what we have here in SoCal, I've had just one broken aluminum wheel which was a cheap cast wheel. That was 10 years ago and that's the only problem I've ever had with aluminum wheels. My steel wheel experiment lasted under two years before I was forced to give up on them. The trail that caused my single broken aluminum wheel was tough enough to have caused multiple breakages all at once. Broken control arm bolt, broken rear differential yoke, broken driveshaft, broken track bar mount, and the broken aluminum wheel. All happened at the same time on an "extra credit" section of a trail called Pumpkin Eater outside of Barstow CA. That bunch of repairs, including welding, made the broken aluminum wheel seem like a minor inconvenience. It was dark by the time I got back to camp that night.
THis is a friend's steel wheel after one weekend of rock crawling in Johnson Valley California, home of King of the Hammers. He went back to aluminum as well.
These are two of the trails I ran steel wheels on where they just didn't hold up. The first was Sledgehammer in Johnson Valley, the other was in the Calico Mountains outside of Barstow CA. Both of these show my previous TJ.
Doran Trail in Calico near Barstow...
It was on trails like those why I had to start carrying BFH to pound the dents out so the tires would hold air. It was too frustrating to continue running steel wheels. Went back to aluminum and never looked Back. The red Jeep is my previous TJ which was stolen nearly ten years ago.
Never again would I run steel wheels unless the trails were easy, smooth, and not rocky.