I have charcoal centers with polished lips and inner barrels. It is such a pain to clean and keep them clean...but once I curbed one of the wheels pretty good. I was able to sand out the curb rash and polish it out. Also I have some knicks here and there, probably from debris on the road that had been kicked up....sand and polish and they are gone. I do think chrome looks a little better and it is much easier to clean but the fact that you can't fix chipped chrome so easy makes it a no brainer for me.
As for the inside of the wheel....if you maintain them, having the inside of the wheels polished looks way better than the dull/raw/porous aluminum finish.
It comes down to preference. You can see the bright red calipers in the lip and with my wheels you can also see the calipers inside the wheel along with all the other hardware back there.
If you like the look and don't mind spending the extra money (or have the tools as I do) do the polished barrels. I've had tons of compliments on them.
