FWIW the original VPI platter was aluminum with a lead insert. When that was replaced on the same turntable with acrylic, also with a lead insert, the review in the (then honest) Absolute Sound said that the original aluminum was clearly awful and that the table really came alive with the acrylic/lead platter. I can personally vouch for the improvement. So acrylic/lead platters became the mainstay of VPI through the early TNT days. The original TNT platter is a great platter and I still use one on my much modified TNT. Lead, by the way, is a perfect substance for that use, not only heavy, but acoustically dead. Try ringing a bell made out of lead!
Eventually, said to be due to environmental concerns, VPI replaced the lead inserts with various metals under the acrylic. Later there were also acrylic platters with no metal. And then the return of the Super Platter: acrylic and steel. Some of the more expensive tables in audio still use an acrylic, or other close plastic material, for the platter.
When VPI went back to aluminum, I was kind of shocked given the history. Back to the future. From all I have been able to gather this was clearly a move simply to lower the cost of production. Apparently high quality acrylic was getting more expensive, and aluminum is cheap and easier to fabricate into platters. As in the original aluminum days, users are scrambling for platter mats of all kinds. And they should.
I have experienced the difference and would never change my platter for the aluminum one.
So bottom line, the OP has a point.
