I bought a couple of used SS 1911's with highly polished flats, and matte on the radius's. The matte finish, while scratched a well, wasnt to bad, but the polished flats, showed the wear and scratches a lot more, and badly. I got both cheap due to how they looked. I bead blasted both to a matte finish overall, and the results were much nicer, and the later, accumulated wear, was a little less noticeable, but still more noticeable, than most of my carbon steel guns.
Ive had the same basic results with a couple of revolvers I cleaned up, and polished bright. The finishes quickly got beat up with just occasional use.
Ive always found SS guns, polished or matte, to show wear and scratches much easier, and more readily than carbon steel guns of any finish. A carbon gun with a hard chrome finish, is a much better choice, than SS. Same look, better resistance to rust and wear, and you dont have the galling issues some SS guns seem to have.
Over the years, the outward appearance of the finishes on the few SS guns that I carried, did not hold up as well, or as long, as the carbon guns to daily use. The SS did hold rust off better than the blued or parked guns, but not as well as the hard chrome or tennifer treated guns. The SS guns did rust/corrode, as did the hard chrome, but the HC was to a much, much, lesser extent. I have yet to have a tennifer treated gun rust at all. Blue and parkerizing, usually dont fare well, rust wise. Most all the finishes on the carbon guns I own/have owned, seem to be a lot more resistant to scratches and wear, than SS.