I'm not too smart, but I think that the aluminum washers are alittle softer than the OEM steel ones that they are replacing.

Sublunacy, you are pretty much correct when you say that bearings are a soft metal that rides against a harder metal. This is what the auto manufacturers have been doing for years for engine bearings (lead, copper, & babbit). They are able to handle lots of stress without failure. However in the wristpin application on the LT engine, only the needle bearings spin. The washers just sit there & take up space. They see very little movement.