You made the right choice. I went through this myself. They wanted to install a Chinese made windshield because of price and I absolutely refused. They got me a Pilkington which is awesome.
The GM windshield is laminated acoustic dampened (or something like that) glass made to decrease outside noise. An aftermarket one may be thinner and louder.
I believe you are referring to the frt door glass. This is a trick a lot of manufacturers are doing for sound reasons but also maybe for safety. So open the windows part way on the car. The back ones are usually single pane, the frt double pane with lamination between the panes.
All windshields in the US are built that way. I was told in Europe they did it differently: plastic on the outside of one single pane of glass. Also windshields in Europe use to "pop out" if you were to hit it. I am not sure about this but that was the explanation given for when the rubber mounted windshields started to have metal grippers in the body opening. It could be that the rubber by itself was found to be to weak on their own and needed the grippers later on.
As a dealer I tried to capture more of the glass business and I could often prove that I was cheaper than the glass companies but the insurance companies had a arranged special deal with the glass companies in such a way that I couldnt win a bid. No matter how much cheaper. Since insurance rarely buys windshields like they used to (coverage), I think you have more say in that now.
Because of how I use my Jeep, I've put a few windshields (5) on over the course of 18 years.
Twice I put in "cheaper" ones and the first cracked surprisingly easily and the second the plastic delaminated so the whole thing turned a milky color.
Genuine OEM winshields for me after that.
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