I originally bought a stainless steel Apple watch with the Milanese loop when the Apple watch was first announced. I only had it for a couple weeks before returning it because I couldn't stomach the price, but the watch and the milanese loop were both very shiny and beautiful. The watch felt nice and heavy, although I did notice that I would periodically readjust the loop to make it tighter around my wrist throughout the day.
I ended up purchasing a pre-owned gen 1 Apple Watch sport a couple months ago. The watch came with the original sport band as well as with a third party milanese loop. The milanese loop was a dull gold color to match the Apple Watch. The milanese loop felt very similar to the Apple one, although with a different finish. I did notice though that the finish or color had come off of the band, so it looks somewhat dull, so I'm not sure if a 3rd party "stainless" Milanese loop would suffer from something similar. The price is so cheap though that you could always just replace it.
The watch came with an antique white band from Apple. I ended up getting a knockoff sport band from Amazon for $10. The knockoff band is a little bit more stiff since it is rubber as opposed to fluoroelastomer, but it looks the same to me so I didn't care. I really like the sport band though since it's very comfortable and light, so I wear it all the time.
I've seen people review 3rd party bands on YouTube, so I would look into that as well. I believe I saw someone review a 3rd party link bracelet that was purchased for under $90. That could be a good alternative.