<font color="red"> I dropped my subscription long ago. </font>
Bird, my brother lives and breathes by the Consumer Reports guides, he won't buy anything unless they say it is the thing to buy. Me, I try stuff out and see if it works for me. I recently needed to buy a car for one of my VPs and picked up a new Chrysler 300 for him, he LOVES that car, but Consumer Reports basically dislikes Chrysler in all shapes and sizes.
For me, I think Cub Cadet makes some good stuff, but they also make some really light duty stuff that I would not ever consider, the lower end of their scale appears to be built for cost, so it can compete in the Big Box stores.
I doubt running a light duty lawn tractor with a front blade would be an advisable thing to do, but running a well made garden tractor that is heavily built with the same front blade won't stress the machine and will likely yield a decade or two of good service. I think it all goes back to the old saying "you get what you pay for." If you want a 20 year machine, then you have 2 choices, buy a good quality machine that is actually built for the tasks, or buy a machine that you will likely have to hold together with bailing wire because you beat it up by working it too hard. Now I am not endorsing any brand, I'm just saying that asking a LT to do the work of a GT is not advisable, even if both machines outwardly look the same, the guts of the drive train, frame, gearing, etc will likely be different and those are the things, along with the engine, that you will really be working.