Well, it's the next day, and I haven't pulled the trigger yet. I went down the interwebz rabbit holes last night and I'm apparently a dinosaur regarding my limited knowledge of modern welders. Regarding modern stick welders, I'm picking up two analogy vibes on transformer vs inverter:
Invalid: "Hey man, never buy a new car - always buy one from the 70s that you can work on in your backyard. New cars are crap!"
Potentially valid: "Find yourself a pre-Tier4 tractor, because you're going to regret the problems from all those electronics going haywire." I have a Tier4 tractor, so via experience, this is a valid concern to me.
Also regarding inverter welders, I'm seeing a trend that it doesn't make sense to buy a name brand (e.g., Miller) made in China. The only difference between them and the link zahc posted seems to be the name and the 3X price.
So on day 2 I'm kinda back to the drawing board. I'm pretty sure I still want a stick welder for the thicker, rusty, painted farm implement metal and stuff so I can do >1/4" if I need to without a bunch of passes and waiting around for duty cycles. And frankly, just to get back into stick welding to see if I can still even do it. :)
I'm now just looking at pros and cons. From what I'm gathering so far (I'm still barely into the learning curve):
Transformer: Pros - bullet proof, made in USA, well-tested simple tech (same as I learned on in welding class in the early 80s) that will handle the stuff I need it to handle, with (from what I can see) easy arc starts (in DC). Cons - heavy and you need that 50amp breaker, which makes field stuff difficult (for me).
Inverter: Pros - Lightweight and portable, cheap*, need way less power (though 220v is still recommended over 110?) and have some kind of "hot start" tech for supposedly easy arc starts. Cons - somewhat delicate electronics that can haywire on you, especially if they're bumped around a lot in the field. People seem to say that you should expect to replace the thing in a few years versus a transformer welder outliving you.
*Really cheap and ubiquitous I guess, to the point that it's hard to separate the wheat from the chaff at the same price point? Again, my reading indicates there's not much difference between a $500 Miller inverter and a $200 "othername" inverter, depending on the "other name". For instance, I've read to avoid HF Chicago Electric, but any of their other cheaper inverter stick welders are as good as a brand name.