Yes Brent, perceived value. I have no issue no mater what the new fan costs- $1 or $1,000. I simply won't use it at
any price point because it doesn't provide the
one thing that would be a plus for me- increased reliability vs. a stock fan.
To me, in a fine point car an original fan is 100% reliable and I would see no benefit from
any replacement fan. Why? Realistically, a car in fine-point is a low hour, slow speed car and will not see accumulated hours of fast highway touring. Has anybody ever had an
excellent original fan break in fine point during judging or on the mandatory tour? Despite all the broken fan horror stories, there are still plenty of excellent originals, I have a few of both the early and late design. Sure, a pitted, cracked, welded, ground, bondo filled fan painted to look new is a bomb, but does anybody laying out the bucks for fine-point really do that? Then maybe the new fan fits their perception of value.
If you do intend to regularly tour with a car, then I see either an excellent original or the new steel fan as
equally suspect in long term reliability, and both
unacceptable to me. Same basic design and materials = same failure mode. For touring you need a different fan, IMHO.
Perceived value. To my eye, those lousy aluminum repops stick out like a sore thumb with their thick edges, and are not the answer either, at
any price point. One can spot it a mile away. It REALLY gets me when I see one of those aluminum trying-to-fool-you fans, and then follow the fan belt around to an
alternator! 
Whats the point? In my mind, you get more respect just running a plastic fan rather than trying to fool almost nobody with the aluminum propeller. If you replace the original fan for increased reliability, I just don't see a new steel propeller fan as any better for someone who will do a lot of driving.
Cyclic work hardening
- C'mon Brent, you do know what that is. Flex a fender at the bead a gazillion times on bumpy roads and it cracks. Or flex a fan blade by varying the load on it every time engine speed changes. Eventually, Crack!