If you have it already, I understand. But if you started from scratch, or if your existing mower died? It might be a slightly different decision. Electric costs more indeed but your own ears, nose and lungs are important as well.
I was starting from scratch at one point. Cheapo mower was $115 and weed whacker was $100. The greenworks combo that would have done the equivalent job was $~200 more for a smaller mower. This is comparing new vs new. I would up watching the internet classifieds and getting a free gas push mower making the cost discrepancy even more. I have yet to have starting issues with any of it and I don't do anything special other than do my last mow in October and first in April/May
I could do without the noise but I own fancy Bluetooth hearing protection for other reasons so that's really a non-issue. A little bit of exhaust every 3-5 weeks in the summer is just a non-issue in practice. I'm sure if I had some ideological reason to care a lot I'd find it more annoying but I don't so...
I have a friend who has the whole 40v kit. In retrospect I definitely made the right decision because his stuff doesn't have the requisite power/duty cycle for my "it's been a month and I have company this weekend, time to mow the lawn" use case and the noise of the gas stuff is less of an issue when it's a monthly thing and not a weekly thing.
