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Sorry to hear about your incident. Fortunately, despite the prop damage, it's a mild incident for you. If you're going to hit something with the prop (and everybody does), it doesn't get much better than dead idle. The decision whether to go stainless is ultimately a personal one. I'm a big proponent unless there are a lot of underwater obstructions in areas that you will be running at speed. If you'd had a stainless prop in this particular case, the motor still would have stalled but you likely would not have had damage that would be visible or even perceptible (e.g. by increased vibration in the prop). If it was metal that you hit, then perhaps you'd have a small nick in the leading edge of a blade that could be smoothed with a hand file. In my last boat, I was at dead idle going through a swampy canal between two lakes in north central Florida when the prop smacked a log laying across the bottom, stalling the motor instantly. Mind you, this was a 400+ hp big block so even at idle it didn't exactly hit the log lightly. I shrugged my shoulders, fired it back up, noticed no vibration in the prop, and took off after getting through the canal 10 mins later. Took a look at the prop a little later and saw zero damage. And my prop was no stronger than the stainless one you'd have on your boat.

Everything gets better when you go stainless except the initial cost. You will have less damage and fewer repairs needed to a stainless prop. It may be the last prop you ever buy. Now if you happen to have a BIG hit while running, there is the real potential for damage to the rest of the motor that might be avoided with an aluminum prop. I've always been willing to take that risk given the benefits of running SS. It has only hurt me once in 25+ years. About 25 years ago, I was driving the boat onto the trailer at a difficult ramp. I had to give it more gas than usual because of conditions, bringing it up to 2500 rpm. I hit something hard, but still got the boat on the trailer. When I pulled it out, all three stainless blades were bent at 90 degrees. There was no other damage. In fact, the repair cost for the prop was probably about the same cost as buying a new aluminum.

Good luck !!