I did a bunch of tilling yesterday, as the ground has dried out since the last snowstorm. I have an area of what was sparse weeds in heavy packed clay, almost like concrete because the neighbors used to park in that area, that I want to plant grass on next spring. I wanted to get the top 6" tilled up and broken up to aerate the dirt, and allow precip to make it's way in over the winter, so in spring, it'll be easier to till in the organic stuff for lawn prep.
Anyway, that stuff was hard as a rock, and I ended up having to run the tractor at creep speed so that the ground wouldn't stall the motor. It was real easy to just barely touch the hydro pedal to go as slow as I needed to get the job done. I know that with past gear tractors that I've used, I could not go as slow as I was able to yesterday. So my vote is for the hydro - it's also awesome for loader work, clearing snow, and mowing. I too really like the 2 pedal hydro setup better than the single trundle pedal.