So I got around to installing the valve cover and it looks like a really good deal. I had ordered OE BMW gaskets but after comparing I went with the supplied ones so fingers crossed! ;) Not as big a job as it looks so I guess if the gaskets only last a year not the end of the world.

And now it's 15% off on Amazon.ca!

I've put about 2 tanks of gas through and all is good so I'll do a quick summary before I start to forget. ;)

The quality looks excellent and even the seals/gaskets look and feel as good or even better than the OE ones.

The metal cover has serviceable PCV valve and baffle passages, I was going to unscrew those to look further but I did not.

The metal cover uses bosses to control the gasket crush so does not use sleeves, comes with new bolts and no spark plug tubes needed.

One thing to watch for is that the head has 2 outside corner dowels which need to be removed because the replacement cover is not machined for them (or the spacer sleeves,) the 2 inside dowels stay but make sure that the cover is sitting on them properly and flat on the gasket before bolting in down.

The mounting bracket for the back of the valvetronic motor is improved and uses a female hex head bolt which is really nice to get to especially with a ball end allen/hex wrench. The other 4 bolts to hold in the valvetronic (and gasket) are changed to female hex as well.

Update: When I first installed the cover and was putting in the replacement bolt at the back valvetronic motor bracket I was really impressed but later was worried that maybe since the aluminium cover doesn't have the same give for expansion as the plastic that maybe it was a mistake to tighten the back bolt. I was going to leave it out and then I thought maybe I would just leave it snug and use some blue loctite on it but then thought I was probably overthinking it and just left it tight. Well yesterday the check engine lite came on with a reduced power warning and I thought 'o crap the water pump again,' but turned out to be a code for sticking valvetronic motor! Maybe I wasn't overthinking after all. So did the 'leave the back screw barely snug and blue loctite' and will see what happens. ;)

Code came back last fall and the E70 was parked for the winter.
So I am going to recommend being a little more careful than I was with installing the valvetronic motor with the replacement metal valve cover. The two screws holding the bracket for the valvetronic onto the valve cover have a fair bit of play in the bracket and need to be tightened AFTER the two main screws on the front of the valvetronic. I didn't realize this and/or was in a bit of a hurry and must have slightly distorted the valvetronic motor housing. It works fine (without a code/check engine light) installed upside down but I am going to replace it anyway and maybe leave the rear bracket off entirely.

I gotta wonder if this type of misalignment is what kills the eccentric shafts ??