I recently went through this on one of my comp trucks, here is where I landed.
My brushed setup was a Holmes BR-XL with a Crawlmaster Magnum Stubby 16t, arguably one of the better brushed motors available. For the Fusion, I use the Pro which is 2300kv. I've also tried various Revolver / Crawlmaster Mini setups.
Both have plenty of power. Both are fairly quiet. Both stay reasonably cool even when pushed hard. The brushed setup will let you run 4S or higher, the Fusion is set at 3S, so it restricts your options on batteries a fair bit. Both have decent BECs. The Fusion has an on/off switch, which I do not like, but it is what it is. Weight on both is reasonable. The Fusion cleans up the wiring a bit and is a nice contained package. I honestly got along great with both, except I feel FOC / sinewave drive offers some benefits that the brushed setup doesn't.
If you don't know how it works, FOC/sinewave/whatever allows you (up to a certain %) to hold the throttle and it basically sets the RPM on cruise control, it will adjust automatically to maintain that RPM. Both the Crawlmaster Mini and Fusion Pro have some form of it, as does the Silent Assassin and various other raw board ESCs do, I think the Axe R2 does as well. This mode gives the truck a really smooth startup, the problem is that it shuts off at a certain %, usually 25-30% depending on ESC. From there, the motor might make a different noise, but the transition can seem slightly abrupt. This is less of an issue with the Fusion IMO than the other, but it's not out of control or anything.
A brushed motor gives you this control instead of the ESC, if it starts to hang up, then it will stay hung up until you give it more throttle. It doesn't do the work for you, but you can make micro adjustments and it isn't going to leap out of control until it is unloaded, which is one major flaw with them. You can be at 50% throttle and it is all good against a wall, but once it clears that wall, it's gonna leap if you don't let off the throttle in time, FOC will not do this. It takes more planning and skill to pull off, but it works REALLY well when it works. The setup also requires a touchier throttle that progresses much faster. If you have a steady hand, I think this gives you more gearing and battery options, control is great also. You can also "feel" the traction of the tires more, they'll spin slow until they grab, then the motor loads until you give it a little more throttle or wait it out to start moving. The downside is if you are competing and get the shakes, it's a lot harder to control than using something with FOC. So the main two downsides for brushed: you have to control it unloading, if you don't, it'll speed out of control -and- it requires a more touchier throttle setup.
For me, I plan on sticking with FOC. The brushed setup is really nice, but the last two comps I did, my fingers were twitching and it made it hard to control and more error prone, FOC is just more forgiving IMO. I also like that I can hold some throttle and focus on steering. I can say that I won't run a brushless setup without it, but it's really tough to call between a good brushed motor/esc and a FOC/sinewave drive ESC. People may give you crap for it, but I know at least one pro driver who has competed with it all last year and was on the podium for national events, so it works. My expectation, and hope, is that Castle gets with the program and updates their ESCs with this so we have more options available aside from the Fusion Pro, Axe (heavy), and exposed board ESCs. If I didn't get the shakes, it would be a really tough decision, I really liked that I could feel out traction with the brushed motor.
Also consider maintenance, brushed motors require new brushes and comm lathes every so often. Not a huge deal but brushless is largely maintenance free. The Fusion Pro is also really nice to keep on hand if you are traveling somewhere as a spare, it's a real easy swapout in case you have a problem.
Side note: The Furitek Lizard has it also, although it is the worst ESC I've ever used, it cogs and performs terribly
