Of course not, once you make a mistake that big you can't just admit you were wrong, you have to own it and ride it out.
Seriously though I don't hate carbs, I believe they have their place. I just don't see the logic in downgrading a vehicle with factory fuel injection. Any perceived gains in simplicity are outweighed by what you give up in function IMO.
Beat me by a minute!
A carb will get worse gas mileage, be harder to start in cold weather,
Carbs can be tuned to run leaner than stoich at part-throttle/cruise. They have the potential to get BETTER fuel economy than feedback fuel injection that's tuned to run at "14.7:1" if the carb and engine are tuned to run at 15:1 or leaner. But guys are
still trying to correct full-throttle fuel ratio on Holley carbs with the MAIN JETS, so it's not likely that you'll find one set up for lean cruise. Carb tuning in general is still apparently a skill that most folks don't have, even for plenty of folks who think they do.
The biggest problems with hard starting are
1. Folks who can't properly adjust the four things on a choke system that need to be correct;
2. Gasoline that may no longer be blended for proper vaporization in cold weather, and
3. Empty float bowls after the carb sits for a period of time--overnight, or a few days. The engine won't start until the float bowls have gasoline; and that takes considerable cranking unless you've got an electric fuel pump that can "prime" the empty carb.
Get the four choke adjustments (choke coil, choke pulloff, unloader, and choke-blade-to-fast idle cam) set properly, get the carb float bowls filled with fresh, winter-blended gasoline BEFORE you start cranking, and a carbed engine will start at -20F. MAYBE it'll even start at -40. In the early days of fuel injection, a properly-set-up carbed engine was MORE likely to start than a fuel injected one when the temperature went to the wrong side of "zero".
The properly-tuned carbed engine will probably need a faster idle, and is less-likely to meet emissions targets especially during warm-up, when the choke is on. That's where FI shines.
and introduce other difficulties with the factory computer controlled stuff like running the transmission as you mentioned. I see it as a hack swap for people who are scared of computers.
Complete agreement.