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Good luck with your guide :)
Here are some of my thoughts about the the things you brought up.
Alistar is a supportive, teamfighting champion, so I believe items like Knight's Vow and Redemption can be perfectly viable in certain situations, or on any tank if you feel your team would benefit from the active abilities. Knight's Vow and Redemption are the two highest win rate items on Alistar in ARAM, so if 5 v 5 teamfights are frequent, I would imagine they could be quite good. Although there isn't a direct comparison on Summoner's Rift, Knight's Vow has a 65% win rate on Sejuani jungle, a 64% win rate on Maokai jungle, and a 56% win rate on Dr. Mundo jungle. Redemption has a 59% win rate on Maokai jungle and a 61% win rate on Amumu jungle. Redemption is a pretty good item on anyone, just because the active is so powerful. Alistar does have a heal, so not even the 10% heals and shields passive on Redemption is wasted. On a supportive, tanky jungler like Alistar, neither item seems nonviable to me.
As far as AD goes, Tiamat and Trinity Force are some of the highest win rate items on Alistar in ARAM. AD gives you a faster jungle clear and better sustained damage to objectives, as well as being a stronger solo carry damage option. While AP will work to kill squishy targets, an AD build could successfully duel tanks as well as squishies. You'd certainly need some practice, as it's a riskier build, but it's absolutely a possibility if you want to play it that way, and I think it might be more reliable than AP Alistar. Either way, I think both full AP and full AD builds would probably be much less effective than building tank, although borrowing a damage item or
For boots, I'm really not sure what are the best. There's probably a decent argument to be made for every variety of boot in some scenario. I picked CDR because Alistar is very cooldown reliant to be useful. Ninja Tabi could certainly be useful, especially against AD or auto attack reliant teams, but they did just get nerfed and they seem more like a situational pick.
In regards to taking Grasp over Colossus, I believe Tank Alistar's role is to engage and peel in teamfights, to give space and set up his carries. So additional tankiness is much more important than damage in this scenario. I did pick Grasp for AD Alistar, mostly because it's easier to clear the jungle early with the resolve mastery (at least on my smurf, where I don't have good runes), as well as how the grasp timing coincides with his E, and also his high base health and extra value of the health stolen if Alistar is ulting. Stoneborn Pact might also be good, but it is only useful in teamfights, where colossus and grasp would both proc if you are 1 v 1 vs the enemy jungler. Maybe Thunderlord's, Warlord's, or Fervor would be good on AD Ali, but I'm not sure.