I proffer the pull-start as well. The ez-start was handy, but it doesn't tell you much about what the engine is doing. The pull-start lets you know when it's flooded and when compression is getting bad. A well tuned engine will start in a couple pulls once the engine is primed.
Even when I used an EZ, I still used a seperate heater to heat the plug before the engine started turning over. Helped it start up a lot quicker. Kind of surprised traxxas didn't include a two position switch for that on their ez-start. Half push to warm the plug, then after a few seconds, push further to fire it up.