Yep, in my opinion, this is the basic thing that separates the casual/basher user from the serious hobbyist/racer... for monsters, fine, rotostart, since they do not have an exposed flywheel, but for racing vehicles such as buggies, a starter box is absolutely essential...the benefits?

1) Sealed back plate (more reliable tuning and running from your engine and one less point of failure).
2) One starter box, all your 1/8th buggies (you can even get one that can be fully adjusted to use with 1/8th on road/off road, 1/10th etc., all in one starter box)
3) Faster more efficient, effortless starting.
4) All race spec engines are supplied with sealed backplates, if you wanted a really nice engine, you'd have to search for a compatible rotostart backplate/pullstart, and compromise the engine's efficiency by changing the sealed backplate.

The downsides

1) High initial investment
2) Heavy when batteries loaded.

HTH...