I'm surprised there isn't a premium version available. There's surely a huge market for people willing to spend ~$100 on a non-plastic version.
As you can see at https://aeropressinc.com/use-it-now/evolution-of-aeropress/ , they’ve continued to re-evaluate materials, including testing for contamination while brewing coffee.
You can boil an aeropress at pH 5 for an hour without detecting any leaching. The interesting bit is how it ages—how cracks form, where bacteria might find a home, that sort of thing.
On every discussion of the Aeropress, I've seen the ask for a non-plastic version pop up. Every time I've then seen essentially your reply above. I'd just prefer a metal or glass version.
I don't worry about crap leaching out of the plastic as much as bacterial creepy critters lodging in the cracks. Also rancid coffee in the cracks isn't nice. Perhaps I should buy a new one, hopefully the polypropylene is more durable.
BTW, I use 200° water. Brewing time is less than 30s total for me.
Handling metal at boiling temperatures is miserable. Burning yourself in your pre-coffee haze makes the ritual less enjoyable. Plastic is pretty damn good brewing material thanks to it's insulation. Metal and ceramics look great but you end up needing to add cladding and they are still inferior.
Fortunately aeropress is forgiving compared to espresso so you might get away with the temperature changes but I would not be suprised by mixed results.
https://www.artisansmith.com.au/collections/press
Steel press is $149AUD, which is about $110USD.