Vero may be in the upper tier of Delta, but one of Masco's high end lines is Brizo (Masco owns Delta & Hansgrohe among others). About every year, they have a new line come out. Last year Brizo had Virage (Delta had the less expensive Dryden line); this year Brizo has Siderna (Delta the less expensive Vero). I have a Brizo Virage lav faucet. Its definitely metal. My only concern is underneath - there is his weird diagonal ring... In any event, it doesn't leak & isn't under constant pressure. The valve stems themselves are pretty beefy. Sadly, made in China, but I liked the literal twist. I also had the misfortune of buying a Hansgrohe handshower set. The handshower itself was pastic encased within a metal shell. Disappointing. The union - it was a simple metal elbow with - and I'm not kidding - a spray paint can snap-on cover with a hole in it. About $50. So its not impossible that Masco is using plastic more extensively. Have you considered (the more expensive) Mico Dual: or California Faucet Aliso (made in California, but you need the separate diverter&hanshower): Give the options, I would go with Fluid, but I prefer the lesser known names (my 2nd lav faucet is Water Decor Nirvana - don't bother: the look of their tub faucet sucketh).

Like the others wrote, the trim kit is just the "pretty shiny parts" that you see. Based on your description you want either a pressure-balanced or a thermostatic valve. The PB or TS valve will be a brass valve body. A chunk of metal. That gets buried in the wall. The trim kit has the chrome or nickel (or whatever) knob, lever, escutcheon plate, etc, the things you put your hands on to turn on the valve or change temperature. For changing out the valve, if you have access to the back of the wall that the valve is on, often times you can cut an access hole there, install the new valve, and patch the drywall. Easy. Many shower valves have large escutcheon plates (the flat "plate" shaped thing that goes against the wall to hide the hole in the wall) that can hide the hole made if you need to go through the tiled side. A very decent and affordable pressure-balanced valve is made by Symmons, the Temptrol series. They aren't the most gorgeous by any means, but they have been around forever and will last forever. I have a few in my own house. You can get the entire setup (valve body, shower head, tub faucet, and trim for $100-$150. You can go higher than that too. The version below is less than $100. They have "prettier versions" too. You can use the included shower head, or substitute one you already have. But it's an excellent valve, and whenever I've needed replacement parts they get sent for free, no questions asked. The Symmons escutcheon plate is large enough where you can go through the tiled wall, change the valve, and the escutcheon plate will hide the hole. No retiling required. Just another idea.

I guess I have expensive tastes, lol. Seriously, I had no idea the Rohl was that expensive. I remembered seeing it in a showroom because it was very striking, but it was one of those places where they make you track down someone to ask the price. I couldn't stomach that price either. In our last house, between 2 baths, we used Aquabrass for 4 lav faucets, one tub set and one combo shower/tub set. We installed in 2005, and it still looked and worked great in 2010 when we moved out, so I know that as of 2005, at least, they were making a great product. Our faucets felt heavy and sturdy, and they had a really nice brushed nickel finish. We also used a Hansgrohe wall bar shower head in the master shower, and we loved that too. We found good prices on the faucets at Homeclick.com.

Delta and Moen are almost interchangeable in terms of warranty and service. Both offer lifetime warranties on the parts. I'm not sure about Moen but Delta also offers a lifetime warranty on their finishes. If your finish has changed you might want to contact Delta and see if those parts would be covered under warranty. Of course it'd still be a hassle to uninstall and reinstall so if the finish is still fine no need to do anything. We have a lot of experience selling Delta Shower Faucets. You can read our article which will teach you everything you wanted to know (and probably more) about Delta Showers here. In regards to the plastic elements, we get asked about that a lot. We are an authorized Delta reseller and many people ask us about whether or not the shower faucets we sell are metal or plastic. The answer is, usually there's a mixture. Some Delta Showers are all metal, others are a combination of metal and plastic. It simply depends on what shape and style they are going for and how the engineers decided how best to fabricate the part. That being said, keep in mind that even the plastic parts made by Delta have a lifetime warranty. You can literally call them up and they will replace a part that is no longer working. I don't think there's nearly as much to worry about regarding plastic parts as people think. Especially if those parts are backed by a huge company like Delta Faucet with a lifetime warranty. Additionally, people don't always think about the reason plastic has been chosen. In the case of a handheld shower, often plastic is the material of choice because of thermal transfer issues. Metal heats up. If you hold hot metal in your hand it's not so comfortable. Plus, it's possible the hand shower would slip out of your hand and you would drop it. If it's plastic, it's very unlikely to damage your tile or hurt you in any way. If it's heavy and made of metal this may not be the case.