Cedar is an excellent material to work with, but do they have to be painted? Stained would make sense if you don't want the bleached look any wood takes on eventually, but I find painting wood to be almost the same as murdering senior citizens, it shouldn't be done ;-) Once wood has a coat of paint on it it may as well be any material since the character of the wood is lost.

So I do think a man made material that comes close to the color scheme of your home makes sense if the only way you can have wood is to paint it.

Anything painted needs to be repainted. If you are building a home you are no doubt looking forward to little to no maintenance for many years. Using paint on the exterior of your new home = maintenance and is self defeating if you ask me. On my home the builder used paint on the door and garage trim. I would like to punch him in the face for that. Every 3 years I have to repaint. Grrrrr...