There are much better heads out there than the Patriot heads. Nothing at all wrong with aluminum heads. There are advatages to them, weight loss, easily repairable, much MUCH better port designs over anything GM ever made. The whole iron keeping the heat in is true, but this is why you run slightly higher compression with aluminum heads. Take a look at the Blue Print heads, Jegs brand heads if you are looking for a budget aluminum head. Don't shy away from a set of used name brand heads, like Dart, etc..
