I have a strong dislike of hydrostatic transmissions.
In the hills we have around here Hydrostats suck power causing you to have to choose a lower range than you would have otherwise. The need to set a cruise control or keep your foot on the pedal is a compromise. They are very inconsistent for ground speed, making spreading, spraying and other speed sensitive chores a challenge. I am a fan of powershift transmissions. They are very nice and easy to use, put full power to the ground maintain a more consistent speed and make shifting on hills easy. Doing ground engaging work such as plowing or discing really makes a geared tractor shine. If I were in the market for a compact tractor I would absolutely go with a Kubota GST or an older Case CVT. My Massey is geared with a shuttle. It will go up hills better than my friends Kubota
L6060 60 hp hydrostat despite being only 45HP and weighing twice the
L6060. Most of my friends that grew up on farms share a similar disdane for hydrostatic transmissions for the reason I mention above.
However my experience is that hydrostat is easier to learn. In college we had geared and HST (Hydrostatic transmissions) on the tractors. The new students had a much easier time driving hydrostatic tractors as they only had to learn how to run the loader since the pedals or tredle is intuitive and requires 0 skill. The learning curve on a hydrostat is much shallower making efficient operation quicker to achieve with most operators. I have friends that I taught how to drive tractors, two of them struggled with my geared tractor due to the transmission. Both can drive stick shift cars so they understand the basics. Both now own hydrostatic tractors that they are efficient with due to the shorter learning curve. When they run my geared tractor they still struggle.
This is my experience with hydrostats and folks new to tractor operation, as well as my desire to never own a HST tractor (I do really want a Verstile 276 or Ford 9030 despite being HST).