If you want shiney, and you know up front that in 3 years you'll likely be replacing a piece, go chrome. If you want to put it on once and forget about it except for cleaning, go for stainless.
On my up-pipe, lower IC pipe, and my TTAB, I went brushed stainless, way less maintenance than the polished. Here's a pic..
You can't see the TTAB or lower pipe (obviously) from here, but the up-pipe is a good representation of what all three look like. Except of course the TTAB is a 3" versus the smaller diameter up and lower. And before you ask, no my intake is not metal, it's the composite (aka plastic) manifold that's been stripped, cleaned and painted a faux cast aluminum, then 8 layers of engine block clear coat. Does look good though.
Oh, one other thing, I went through all my hose clamps on my car and replaced several that were not stainless. The stainless clamps last a life time, the others about 10 years and they have to be replaced.