The main reason why Traxxas does well for hobby shops is because they rarely update their designs so the shops never have to worry about losing money on stocking parts that might get discontinued. Traxxas also isn't very durable when compared to most name brands, Traxxas is just durable enough for casual bashing around but break often enough to be profitable for hobby shops which is why they love to promote Traxxas more than any other brand.

I feel that Traxxas is better suited for someone who knows nothing about R/C and has a local shop to take their car so the shop can make repairs for them in the shop for a small service fee. This is a win/win situation and I fully support that business model. For the folks who get online and do more research, they tend to become more savvy and quickly learn that Traxxas isn't quite as great as they were first told by the local hobby shop.

Don't take my word on it, there's a great write up from this hobby shop owner here who spells everything out:
https://rogershobbycenter.com/from-b...w-opinion.html

ARRMA is pretty good too... most brands share many common parts between their cars just so long as you stay within the same brand name between classes.

Since you are in a remote location, I would encourage you to pick a brand that is the most durable you can find for your price point.

As far as battery connectors go, there are tons of adapters out there on eBay to get you going no matter what brand you decide to go with, even better for you to buy a soldering iron and attach your own connectors. It may sound intimidating to learn how to solder, but it's extremely easy, pretty good tutorial here:


One final caution for you to understand the gaping money pit if you decide to go with Traxxas, be sure to watch the durability montage here:


Same guy performing the same durability testing on ECX: