Too each is own. If you've been popping ESCs, puffing batteries and having dead sticks on any kind of a regular basis then I'm not surprised that you are having trouble seeing the benefits of electric power. I'd say you haven't been doing something right. I haven't puffed a cell in years. I've never popped an ESC and I've had precious few dead stick landings. I've been flying electric power for 14 years and have been electric exclusively for 6 years.

There are some things I do differently than you however that may make my preference easier to understand. I don't like extra long flight times. Something between 8 and 12 minutes is usually all I ever care for at one time. I bring along several dirt cheap Chinese lipos when I go to the field and I almost never recharge when I'm there. I just swap batteries and go. I'll race you some time if you think I spend more time getting ready between flights than you. I've never changed the bearings on my motors.... never. I know some people have had to but it hasn't been me. In fact, my motors are cheap enough (I use outrunners.) that I'd rather replace them than spend much time or money servicing them. We haven't even touched on the vibration issue or the glow slime issues either. But then I'm sure you have your ways with dealing with those things that are better than mine were. So I suppose it's all in what you know. But the beginners of today are cutting their teeth on foamies and other small electrics. Their experience isn't with glow engines and so their tendency will be to stick to what they do know. Like it or not, glow engines have been shown the door in a very big way. Maybe they haven't gone through that door just yet because of guys like you that grew up with glow power but electric power is the future. The writing is on the wall.