I was hugely against anything computerized till I actually owned one, and like Mustang, the MT saws became my go to.
Just built an 046 for a buddy and had to set it fat as hell so he wouldn’t burn it up-the truth is most guys don’t know how to tune a saw. Once a saw is ported, the window of safe tune becomes much narrower.
Autotune is the best thing since sliced bread until it malfunctions, but it rarely does. It is usually something else wrong with the saw and you just need to go down a diagnostic path that becomes different because the computer you can’t check is a new variable.
I’d vote to got MT and use good EtOH free fuel. The 462 is my favorite all around Stihl currently. The 500i makes some serious power ported, but it’s as expensive as a 661 and somewhere in between the 462 and 661 in size.
If a tree goes down here now, my logic on what to grab becomes “is it too big for the 261?”. If it is, I grab the 462. Both stay fueled and sharp in my shop ready to go. They always start and run at peak, on cold days, warm days, etc...