Many aftermarket pads are noisy and might adversely effect brake stopping distance. My Volvo with OEM pads stops on a dime when needed and I've had a few close calls where if it wasn't for my fast reaction time plus fantastic braking, I would have hit the bozos who crossed into my lane, one w/o looking (panicked over another car in her lane) and another guy had a blowout and spun out just before my car, was very close both times (both last summer).
I won't experiment with any aftermarket pads as OEM are quiet (unless wet braking first time, no big deal), they last a reasonable amount of time IMO and they stop the car better than most other cars I've ever owned, no comparison.

As for the fuss over brake dust, IF you hand wash the car (like me) once in a while, cleaning the wheels too, you'll never see that dust. I'm not even a car was "fanatic" with my Volvo as it's older now and I'm not that fussy about it but my wheels never look half as bad as most of our Volvo customers do and I think it's due to the cars rarely being washed and/or use of automated car washes which never do anything with mag wheels.

I've driven Volvos with aftermarket pads (brands unknown to me) and they're usually noisy and braking isn't as good as how it should be IMO.

My $.02 on it anyway.