A lot is personal preference I guess. Have a friend who installed the composite stuff, after a few years it just looks "plasticy" to me with some boards warping and bending. I just rebuilt an old deck this spring and chose redwood (stained and sealed) with pressure treated supporting structure underneath. Need to make sure only pressure-treated touches soil. I just love the look of real wood, redwood especially. When it is new it looks great, when it is old and turns grey it still looks great. I don't know, I just really dislike the plastic stuff. And later if the wood starts to look bad, I can resurface it. Can't do that with plastic. Sure I will have to seal it every couple of years, but hey, I am retired now, what else am I going to do? I just LOVE the look of the redwood, and how the color changes with the changing angle of the sun and shadow and light, the interesting texture, no two boards alike. So pleasing to the eye and the touch.