The cost of one versus the other may differ from person to person, especially based on how much equipment they have. For example, I own a tire truer and a lathe, and so on. You actually forgot the cost of the ESC in your brushed setup.
I like Novak's system in some ways but hate it in others. For one, at the highest levels, it makes battery voltage an even bigger factor; I ran brushless at the Novak race and with the same motor and gearing, Charlie Suangka (Novak employee) could catch about 8-10 car lengths on me in the straightaway. So much for the "everything is equal" myth that keeps getting tossed around with brushless systems!
A brushed motor requires maintenance, but it also means that to be fast, you have to know your stuff and put in the work, not *just* have the fastest batteries. I've seen guys with 1.16 cells beat guys with 1.18 cells because they tuned their *handout* motors better and their cars better. I really like that aspect of it.
As for rubber versus foam, here we go:
1. one set lasted me 8 weeks. (seems short) that means about $20/month for tires
Eight weeks of racing is actually pretty good. Suppose you have 3 top racers running rubber (say, John, Vue and Jeff). They all put on brand new sets of rubber tires on week 1. If John puts on a new set in week 3, he will be .2-.3/sec a lap faster than Vue and Jeff, all else being equal. Then if Jeff puts on a new set a week later, it forces Vue to either put on a new set the next week or hope that Jeff and John make mistakes and the extra tenths don't matter.
If you could convince all of the racers that they had to use the same set for a particular number of weeks then you'd be a bit better. But when they all know that a new set will give them an advantage, you can't stop them -- that's just how racing is, at any level. At a big race you'll see novice guys putting on new sets of rubber tires because they know they are faster.
With foam tires, you start them around 2.30" and skim about .01-.02 off of them each week to keep them true. You should be able to be just as competitive for 8 weeks as you would with new tires. This, to me, is a HUGE positive for foam.
2. Wear seems to be uneven, front to back, side to side. While I always try to adjust to camber to make them wear flat, the speed at which they wear is so high that it seems you constantly have to rotate them (or true them) to maintain the same size. That also effects the car set-up/ride height.
See above. Re-true the tires every week or two and they will be perfectly fine. In fact, it's like having a new set of tires!
3. Dirt/Carpet fuzz. About 10 times the amount of clean up afterwards.
I hate to be the one to say it (at the risk of being voted out of the club again, haha) but the carpet at MARCCA is an absolute JOKE. It is full of fuzz because it has been abused for years. Foam tires don't at all make a car more dirty on any normal racing surface; because our carpet is self destructing, it picks up the fiber and shoots it back onto your rear drive axles and such. Usually we use zippo lighter fluid to clean off the foam tires after a run and it works very well (it's a degreasing agent). It also helps keep them "sticky" for the track.
I very, very, very rarely have chunked foam tires, even at MARCCA. If you can run 5 minutes clean, or close to it, you shouldn't be chunking tires; I'll be the first to admit that foam tires are not for novices, nor should they be.
On rubber tires:
1. They don't seem to wear or wear out (minimal set-up changes).
2. They don't attract all the carpet fuzz like foams.
If you're not seeing them wear out it means you're probably not yet at the point where a couple tenths of a second make a huge difference on lap times (and this is not at all meant as a knock on you) . I could run my rubbers for weeks on end at the Sportsman and middle-stock level, but when I started getting to where I could run a clean 5 minute race with no crashes, they make a big, big difference.
I can go out there with an old set of Sorex tires, but I WILL be slower than others with newer tires. It's a sad fact.
If our carpet didn't suck so much, we might be able to get away with running the pre-mounted Take Off 27s and have no traction issues. But right now building a good set of racing rubber tires is going to cost you $40-$45, while a new set of foams will cost you $32-$34. Plus it is about 800 times easier to true a set of tires than it is to mount a set of rubbers.
On owning a truer: there ar truers available for under $200 that will last a long, long time and -- *I* think -- save you money in the long run. Big time. If not, there are plenty of people (like myself) who are happy to bring a truer to the track and let others use it, or even true tires for you.
And then there's another reason: 90%+ of the national-level indoor races run on foam tires. I am going to the Carpet Nationals next week, so I couldn't race at MARCCA for the past few weeks because it's a totally different type of racing. I don't see why we are hanging on to a form of racing that is, at the moment, not very popular. Once again, that is just my opinion and certainly not shared by everybody.
Anyway, those are my thoughts. The real answer is always going to be "what is best for you" although I encourage trying foams out for a longer period. Being able to drive and set up both a foam car and a rubber car will certainly make you a better driver!