I have both. My lawn tractor has hydrostat trans,power steering, split brakes etc. All the bells and whistles but I only use it to pull seeders, spreaders etc.
I also have a compact tractor with a mid-mount mower attachment. Neither one has had the mowers on in over a year. My Scag tigers will mow circles around them. The blade speed is way to slow on the tractors. If you put the tractor in road gear so you can mow at 8 to 10 mph like most z-turns do, you leave so much uncut grass that you have to slow down and go back over it. In close areas where speed isn't a factor, theres the time you lose turning around and going back and forth to get in position. When I went from a lawn tractor to a z-turn I cut my mowing time in half.