Jarryd, you are probably aware of these points and more, but I'll just make a couple of short comments on the design of the mowers - I haven't used either of them.
First, according to the specifications the JD has a bar blade. I've tried a bar blade mower, and I don't intend ever to even try one again. It cut poorly, filled the catcher poorly, and by the time I got it, had damaged its base pretty severely by throwing rocks at itself. Also, every ex-contractor bar blade Honda I've owned and examined had a sheared blade-drive key (for obvious reasons).
Second, the Honda you are considering has an overhead camshaft "residential" engine rather than the overhead valve "commercial" engine. This is OK if you won't wear it out, and you don't mind possibly having to do a simple retiming job occasionally if the rubber belt driving the camshaft jumps teeth.
I've read an isolated report suggesting that the JD may have a smallish grass chute and as a result may handle long or wet grass poorly. If true, this is a significant annoyance to the operator.
More importantly, my experience has been that it's difficult to know how you'll find a mower until you try it out, preferably under unfavourable weather and grass conditions. I have a tendency to select mowers based on specifications and physical inspection of robustness and features. Then I find after some use of them that I've overlooked some more important features that were a bit harder to evaluate just by looking. I'll give an example. My main mower is a 1980s Honda HR194, which I have converted to 4 swing-back blades. I love the thing, it's robust, durable, and feels like a Rolls Royce, especially when you work on it: everything bolts together, no click-ins, no drive-on wheel retainers, no dumb single-lever height adjustment that destroys the base's left front axle mounting. However I also have a Honda HRU195 from about 2005. I can't love the thing, because it has Honda Australia's tin-pot base design, and already needs a new base. However it is lighter, quieter, more powerful, and above all, it cuts long wet grass vastly better. It's like comparing driving a heavy diesel manual-transmission 4WD with a modern Commodore: when I drive a 4WD I feel proud of myself for doing something difficult and doing it well. When I drive a Commodore I just relax and think about something else. And having said all that, I use my old HR194 every week, and only use my HRU195 if the grass is wet - it gets fired up about once a year.
So, I suspect that however much reading you do, you won't know if you will be happy with a mower until you try it a couple of times.
