Choosing a road pedal system - Focus on durability
I'm a hugely biased exponent of speedplay pedals. The cleats are metal and I would say reasonably durable. I just walk around in mine for short distances like cafe stops, to/from the bike racks at work, but you can also get little covers for them. Or they make a walkable cleat (although I have no experience of these).

They have plenty of float with adjustment for heel in/out right the way down to no float at all. The pedals are double sided so clicking in doesn't require you to rotate the pedal to find the right side.

You do need to grease them though, there's a little screw on the side that you have to undo and squeeze grease in through every month or so - depending on your mileage and riding conditions. I've ridden several pairs into the ground before buying the grease gun to do it with, but my current pair are coming up to three years old.