I have an idea. I don't know if it's true for everyone.
My steel bikes ride great. However, 2 of them are hand built by guys whose stuff has huge waiting lists or ridiculous bidding wars. The third was machine welded in small batches to a fairly ambitious design. I can't fault any of these.
I raced on aluminum and scandium and loved it. That time when OCLV was good but it wasn't really much better than the aluminum offering. All my bikes were basic road frames, some branded some not. Always Ultegra or Dura Ace and 15-17 lbs. Every one of them great and functional. Never mind boggling.
I imagine that if a brilliant custom guy built those aluminum frames, they'd probably be about as good as the custom steel rides.
Maybe steel isn't better but really nice stuff is better than mass produced?