Always interesting to find out what one person considers expensive, another considers good value.
We have a SS back splash all along our dough table and added it around a corner where our VCM sits. It cost about $300 to add it for an area 10’ by 4’ for smooth steel sheet. It was very easy to install with silicone adheasive and has required no additional maintainance in the 5-6 years since we installed it.
We REPLACED another synthetic product that had gotten srcatched up, faintly stained and had become nearly impossible to really get clean. The steel is easy to clean, very tough, looks good. Sure I could have put something else there for $100. Five years later, the extra $200 spent looks good to me!
I would not consider anything but steel. Contact some steel fabricators (I got my referral from my US Foods rep) and give them the dimensions you need. Don’t buy through a retailer, that should get the pricing down where it needs to be.