My 5 cents on aluminum vs steel fork
In the mid 1990’s I bought an aluminum frame Huffy rigid MTB. I jumped the bike off of a 20’ cliff at a very high rate of speed(probably about 30-40 mph. I broke several bones, got a concussion, and broke my steel handlebars, bent my front wheel, but the fork remained in tact along with the rest of the frame.
I think the debate over an aluminum vs steel fork is irrelevant… I can understand the main part of the frame wanting to be steel, but a the fork is going to hold up just fine for normal touring