My experience is that chrome faucets do spot easily. We have a brushed stainless kitchen faucet that I love and wish my bath faucets were the same. It also depends what kind of faucets you buy. The worst one of mine is a single handle chrome with a flat plate at the bottom. That plate always looks bad!

Brushed nickel is pretty easy to maintain as well. I have one BR faucet in that and it never really shows any spots.

I have both. I do think both show spots, but chrome shows more and also shows fingerprints.

My chrome might spot between cleanings, but it wipes up like a dream. From what I have read over the last few years on GW, chrome is the most durable and easily cleaned fixture. I have heard that polished nickel needs to be polished. I don't know about brushed nickel but it is way more expensive than chrome. The colors are different too. Nickel with a gold cast and chrome with a blue cast.

Of course you will need to get a quality product with what ever finish you use, but chrome is the most durable finish out there. When I clean, just a quick easy wipe, and my chrome sparkles.

My BN finishes and chrome are both easy to clean. The kitchen BN doesn't show spots much, but also does't wet much. The bath BN shows a ton of spots because it is constantly getting splashed and wet. The powder room chrome does show spots and dust, but wipes up very easy and provides a more rewarding cleaning experience because it almost glows when I'm done!

I've had chrome and ORB and all show spotting with our hard water/water softener. ORB, being dark, showed every spot, the chrome was better, but not great either, the minerals in the water, or maybe it was the salt from the softener built up and became difficult to remove over time. Although I would wipe it down whenever water got on it, others in my family were not so diligent and over time it required a lot more rubbing to clean. I switched to all brushed nickel, couldn't be happier. Yes, there is some spotting, there will be with any type, but by far, the brushed nickel shows it the least and is easy to clean. These days, the ease of cleaning always factors in to my choices.

i have polished nickel fixtures which is super easy to clean... yes, they show spots, like chrome would, but when you do wipe them down, they look sparkling clean and shiny like chrome does ... i like that look.
whatever finish you get, get the 'lifetime finish' type of equivalent - just like for front door hardware, it's worth spending alittle more to get an enduring finish!