I understand that Husqvarna is now building the Craftsman mowers... I have two Husqvarna mowers, one a Rider 155 that's 14 years old with over 2500 hours on it, and a GTH52xxx that 3 years old and about 50 hours on that one.
The old Rider has been a jewel. Mows 'golf course smooth'. I mowed 3 acres for about 10 years with that one, used it to haul logs after hurricanes before I bought my Kubota tractor. That little guy has simply been abused, but also well maintained. Almost no repairs and that's saying something since it has a Kohler 15hp engine and the TorqTuff K46 transaxle.
The newer GTH with the 26hp Kawasaki is definitely a brute, but not meant for nice smooth clean cut grass. It does great in waist high weeds, but it is NOT a garden tractor by any means, nor not even a smooth cutting lawn mower. In fact, I burnt the drive belt up trying to tow my golf cart uphill out of a creek :-( And unfortunately, it does not have true traction lock, which the newer ones I think do have. At least, it did not come with the TorqTuff transaxle!
I bought the GTH to handle cutting steep slopes on my pond dams. It had enough power but not enough traction. So, I changed out the turf tires on the rear for all-terrain tires, and added 50# weights to each drive wheel. It now handles the slopes with ease. I've not had any breakdowns with the GTH, but then, it's not all that old either.
I can recommend the Husqvarna Rider models for a 'lawn', but if you're cutting steep slopes or super high weeds, nah, I'd have to see it in action. Mine won't.
Unfortunately, ZTRs are not known for handling steep slopes either. Perhaps some other readers that own ZTRs have some mods to improve on slope mowing. If so, I'd sure be interested; no doubt a good quality ZTR would be the fastest and best cutting mowers to be had.