My first was (still is!) a WBC because it was in our garden for the first season and my wife insisted on a "proper" looking hive. It's done really well over winter, moved it to a farm site in March and they are roaring away. I think if your site is at all exposed then the added insulation of a WBC helps - I know the old saw that it's starvation kills bees, not cold, but surely in the cold they need more stores which increases the chance of runnign out, or the cluster getting separated from useable stores.
Another objection to WBCs is they are more work, which is obviously true with the lifts - but if you're only looking after a few hives as a hobbyist, then I don't think this matters, for me half the pleasure is being out in the open air working with them!
The only think I would do differently is not go to brood & half - there is a real problem with WBC because the smalleer brood box may not be enough for many modern strains, but I wish I had gone to double brood, or even deep brood whcih you can get for WBC.
There's good argument for double brood - everything is interchangeable, and you can manipulate to phase out old otherwise unwanted comb.
