The Revo is a great truck, I had one. The stock 2.5 ran great for about 1 gallon and then a bearing went bad. Is it a pain to work on? Yes. But any MT is a pain to work on. Heck any car is a pain to work on.
Starting out with a nitro vehicle is probably not the best choice ( I know, I started with a TMaxx) as there is SO, SO much to learn. Not only is there alot of maintenance, but just tuning a nitro engine requires some experience. I bought my Tmaxx in January ( winter for me) and broke it in outside. Not the smartest thing, but I didn't know.
I see people saying it's not a good newbie truck referring to the durability of the truck. It does have more parts to break especially in the suspension, and you WILL break stuff, but it's a good truck overall.
The problem is is that it is nitro, and in my opinion ANY nitro vehicle is not a good first car. But then again, I wouldn't have learned what I learned by not having the Tmaxx either.
Good luck either way.