FWD is found on the lower priced mowers because it is cheaper to build, no 'differential' for ease of turning. Some find them harder to turn because the machine is nose heavy requiring more effort. I had a 1/4 acre lawn and wished for sp, that was a lot of work for an old guy maybe you are still young and full of beans LOL. My current mower is a Honda HRX, the best machine I have ever used.
FWIW, I loved those old Lawnboys.

It would be in your benefit to determine if you wish to bag at times. As the bag fills up, the front drive is a bit less surefooted. Lots of folks have the Toro Personal Pace and I personally have the Lawnboy equivalent. You just walk the speed you want to travel and drive goes the speed you do. It doen't get much better. You can get basic ones at H Depot or the Toro Dealers have those plus the better ones.

FWD is prolly easier to manuver on the flat. My back yard isn't flat. The FWD needed constant fussing with to keep it going after a few yrs. Then I had a couple RWD that worked fine ,but were a PITA to manuver. Now, I have an old sit down and a Lawn Boy 2 stroke for a trimmer.

Many FWD fans simply do not get the turnaround procedure, which is simply to let go of the drive bail, turn, then push the mower off as you pick up the drive bail again, done all in one motion without even slowing down. I prefer the Toro/Lawn-Boy 'Variable Speed' system that lets you 'feather' the bail to go slower for mulching or whatever, and of course has all the other benefits of RWD over FWD. The FWD front tires wear out because FWD is basically inefficient on a mower. You never find that kind of slippage on RWD mowers and the drive tires last many times longer than FWD mowers. Toro 'Personal Pace' works great for many, but not so great for some with a lot of push-pull situations and cutting up to an obstacle. The problem is you can't turn it off by just dropping a bail. The mower will not convert to a push mower - every time you push on the bar it engages the drive, so push-pull situations can be nightmarish. But, in a nutshell, RWD is better in every respect than FWD on mowers. Let us know what you get. I would most likely get the Lawn-Boy 20" 'Variable Speed' 10641 which is one of the best deals ever.

Here is a link that might be useful: LB 10641

Hi. The wheels on a front wheel drive mower tend to show more wear mostly because they are not in hard contact with the lawn. Most of the weight is over or extends behind the rear wheels so the front will spin more. If your lawn is indeed flat and small, then some spinning is really no big deal as far as control goes and you will have plenty of traction to move the mower around. If you need more pulling power just push forward on the handle a bit. The advantage to FWD is that you simply change directions by pushing down on the control bar a bit - no bail release is really needed.

For whatever it is worth I used a 1973 FWD Toro for many years on a lawn with a couple of decent hills. Many many FWD mowers are sold every year, so it is clear that the design works. It won't provide the traction and pulling power that RWD would. I would think that one of the moderately priced Toro FWD mowers from Home Depot would work very well in your situation.