TomD
+1 on that, but let me play advocate a little...

"Wood is light, slick, and warm. Metal is durable, heavy and clinical."

Let me add that for me it is less about the materials, there are better materials, maybe, than wood. To me it is about the different formats, and the wedge etc... format is just better.

Wood is also durable. In the amateur shop they look hardly used after 40 years. they don't suffer if dropped, etc. Weight is basically never an advantage, but you can make light heavy, you can't make heavy light. Normally technical products want to be made light, then you can put the weight were it needs to be rather than were the structure says it has to be.

"As the planes get bigger, I appreciate the lightness of wood. As the wood gets harder and the grain more interlocked, I prefer the extra mass of steel."

Extra weight is always bad. Planes that need more weight to plane well are simply badly designed. A well designed plane use geometry and design, rather than weight. And weight not only tires the planer out, but reduces speed. Speed is part of the secret to planing since cutting power increases to the square of speed. More cutting power improves the quality of the cut, or the speed of stock removal.

"Sometimes it comes down to whatever is sharp"

So true, though since the wedged plane is a lot faster to cycle, it should be easier to keep sharp.