Another vote for a Honda engine. Granted, mine is on a rider and is twice the size of the engine on your Craftsman, but it has never given me a problem. I have replaced almost every belt, pully, switch and bearing on the tractor but have never had to do any work to the engine. Heck, in the 22 years I’ve owned it I have never once had to add oil between changes - and I’m bad about only changing the oil every 2-3 years.
As much as I have abused that engine, 22 years of trouble free starts is a true testament to Honda engineering.
I’ve got two that I use. A John Deere with a Briggs motor and a Honda. I’m pretty rough with them (a lot of engaging and releasing the self propel clutch, forward and backward motion, cutting around the base of trees, etc.) While the Briggs motor isn’t the best and has often given me starting fits, the John Deere is a work horse. I can beat the crap out of that thing and the self propel clutch, blade, wheels, are just fine.
The Honda by far has the superior motor and has started without fail for over a decade but the rest of the mower seems a bit… fragile? The self propel clutch works off and on and doesn 't always want to ‘grab’ for how often I engage it. It also doesn’t feel as solid going over uneven ground.
If you have a nice flat square yard where you’ll be making long repetative straight passes I’d go Honda. If you have a lot of obstacles you’ll be working around, hills, bumps, etc I might look at something else.
I got a Taco 44 mini-bike when I was five years old, and it had a 4 hp Briggs & Stratton engine. It caught fire one day due to a leaky gas tank. There was another mini-bike, a Bonanza with a 5 hp Tecumseh engine. Even though it had an extra horsepower (things like that are important when you’re in the single-digits), I preferred to ride the Taco. I just liked the B&S engine better.
The mower place called yesterday to tell me my mower is ready. (It’s still ready, because I have a nasty cold. I should pick it up today anyway.) A new motor isn’t a necessity. But there will be a time – ‘soon’ (meaning maybe next year?), if the SO has any say in it – when I’ll have to buy a self-propelled mower. I like the Honda, though I can see how Hampshire perceives the plastic deck as ‘fragile’. The Toro is the SO’s recommendation, and she has said ‘I’d never spend that much for the Honda.’ If I choose the Honda, I’ll be in the dog house – and we don’t have a dog. The Toro would make the SO happy, since I will have taken her advice, but I’m becoming leery of B&S engines. The Husqvarna looks like a good compromise. It’s $100 more expensive than the Toro, but it’s $100 cheaper than the Honda. It’s not a Honda, but it has a Honda engine. It’s not a Toro, but it’s not as expensive as the Honda.
In the end, I went with the Toro in the link in the OP. The SO loved hers. She said the new mower was pretty, and I’ll never have to buy another one. And she’s quite happy I listened to her. And I like it when she’s happy.