Not trying to hi-jack, just curious.
In a world where emissions didn't matter would you prefer old technology over new as far as reliability and run ability?
No. Long before I ever worked on a chainsaw I spent a lot of time tuning real carbs, on road vehicles and some on race cars. There is a correct mixture for power, and it does not involve misfiring/4-stroking. I know how real carbs work, and regard any engine that is misfiring as broken and in need of repair. There never was any need for that, it's just that fuel was cheap and nobody understood the environmental issues or cared about the health of the operator, so they took the cheap way out. Then too, unburned fuel blown out the exhaust due to scavenging losses is a waste, and it produces no power.
Reducing emissions need not have any negative reliability or run-ability impacts at all, rather quite the opposite. Both of these problems were/are easily solved, and have been, with designs that are elegant, simple and effective. Strato does not require a single moving part yet drastically reduces scavenging losses, while freeing the designer to chose port timing for more power. The poor carburation could have been solved without electronic feedback systems all along, but AutoTune achieves feedback control with almost no additional sensors.
Still, there is no world where emissions don't matter, as they will always matter to me. I'm old enough to understand that humans are not invincible, and the kind of cumulative effects that breathing the stuff that's in fuel mix can have on a human body.