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The only cases I've heard of that involved broken/damaged base plates involved detonated primers. I'm not sure a steel plate would fare much better, although it would probably bend more than break/crack, and may therefore be repairable.
You're right about specific applications; I'd rather fly in an airplane made of aluminum than steel any day.
As for the shell plate supporting the case, that would be unique among all presses I've seen, and subject to damage the brass during resizing, since the case is designed to be supported by the base, not < 75% the top of the extractor groove, which is all the shellplate contacts. Rimmed cases are not supportable by the shell plate either. It may be that the shell plate normally floats high enough that the cartridge base does not contact the base plate until it is being shoved up into the die(s). Dillon specifically recommends to set critical dies (like seating and resizing dies) with a fully loaded shell plate.
Andy
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