This is a very interesting thread.
Myself, in winter I need power to outlast a blizzard that takes down the power lines. Very dependable power here, would take something major to have an outage. A summer outage would only bother the refigirator & freezer contents, no other need for power so that would be minor risk in the big picture.
But in winter, would need power to keep house warm. Or many things freeze up, and really bad expensive things happen. As well keeping the well running every 3rd day for livestock water would be important.
So, my needs are winter emergency, and can often be during 15 below or some such. At least that would be the possibility.
So, I would want to it to work in bitter cold weather, no question.
I couldn't imagine having a stand alone diesel generator, ugh! Would not fit my needs. Trying to start that in the bitter cold after setting a long time...
Gas stand alone, requires me to make sure it has fresh fuel & good tuneup. Hum. Really depending on that one engine to fire up, and likely won't get much use to keep fresh... Out there in the bitter cold blowing wind, trying to crank over a forgotten small engine. I'm not real impressed with that idea.
Now, a 3pt genset for a tractor - I have 4 gasoline powered tractors, and 4 diesel powered tractors. Half of them are running all winter long.
When I _need_ the power, I need it. Don't care if I run the generator for only 5 hours a day, just to keep the furnace going, and can get the fridge & water pump to go then also. I sure don't _need_ the TV on, all the lights in the house on, or the water heater running all the time. I can rough it a little bit, don't need the 24 hour thing.
So, I don't care if I have to run my 120 hp tractor for a little generator if that was the only one that started - the fuel used would be small compared to the damages without it. I have 8 chances to get an engine going, and 2 bulk tanks of fuel to draw from.
For me, the 3pt that uses a tractor seems to make more sense.
Just a different point of view. We are blessed with very good power here from the REA, so a genset is only for very rare emergency; or using a welder or something on the far side of the place. Nostly it would sit in the corner, forgotten.
No right or wrong, just different situations.
--->Paul