Alienware compensated with the build quality, they traded off metal enclosures to save up on weight. It is easy to look at the material and simply say "Plastic!" since anything that resembles or looks like plastic , people will always claim it as plastic. The chassis is built using mylar composite, not plastic, otherwise the heat from the exhaust of the 8800M GTX would have melted the vents off. The bad part of that wrist pad area is that the trackpad is also built using the same material, so the only way you can identify whether your fingers are gliding on the trackpad area or not is to glance at it, not by feel(since the trackpad area feels the same as the wrist pad area).

The philosophy with purchasing Alienware is "always go for the best , or dont go there at all", so if you plan to skimp on things, might as well stick with the local brands. So the "value for money" statement does not apply for Alienware, it is after all a boutique brand. Same reason why people dont associate "value for money" with Louis Vuitton or Hermes.