I agree that it depends on what you plan to do, but it also depends on where you fly. With the small electrics you are at the whims of the wind. My Aerobird Challenger would get its but kicked in 10 MPH winds. My Midwest Aerobat doesn't mind 10 MPH so much. But even that is limited, get up near 20 MPH and things get interesting. Make it gusty or worse a crosswind, and things get even worse.
If you just want to stick to park flying for a while, which is what I did. You can learn a tremendous amount of flying skills with a minimal investment. The Aerobird Challenger or Aerobird Extreme could be a good introduction into three channel flight (rudder, elevator, and throttle). The rudder control become aileron on 4 channel planes and the skills transfer fairly well.
I spent three months with my Challenger before retiring it for my Midwest Aerobat. I have only been flying it for a few weeks, and have yet to solo, but I am close (with the help of a lot of time in RealFlight).
I will even put a pitch in for electrics like the Zagi wings. BY no means are they beginner planes. But when you get bored with regular park flyers, Zagi's will rock your world. They are fast, very aerobatic, durable, and still cheaper than most any 40 sized ARF. Their speed comes from their origins slope soaring (what they were originally designed for).

I think most would agree that the bigger the airframe the bigger the cost delta between glow and electric. If you think you would like to get into larger aerobatic/pattern flying, definitely start with glow. One ironic thing about RC planes that I have discovered is that the larger the airframe the easier it is to land.