Iconcur. The knowledge is equivalent if not more involved (if you get into the nitty-gritty of circuit design). Certainly the investment is equivalent. Ifly gas and glow and haven't done much in electric flight as it is a doubling of expense (for the required chargers and peripherals: either six batteries or a 12V quick charger). The airframes are now equivelent in the balsa &ply built sizes. It's just the little park flyer models that are cheaper.

I'm not sure what it takes to tune and maintain an electric motor, but some of the gas and glow techniques do require a set of knowledge. If you have a chainsaw, weedtrimmer or lawn tractorand can maintain it yourself you're ahead of the curve. It is no harder than programming an ESC Iimagine. Just different. Ienjoy playing with small engines and find that activity(and the sound of gasoline models) missing from electric. If you don't like thatcomponent thenIguess it loses some luster.

Iadmit Iprefer magneto ignition becausethere is less electrical froo-fraw to mess with. The fewer batteries Ihave to keep an eye on for charge the better. If you have a battery eliminator ESCIguess that's also a handy deal. One battery packper aircraft is complicated enough for me.