The other factor you might not be fully accounting for in your dislike of brushless motors is the intended application... I agree with you that they are questionable for a power chair (Though Shirley seems to do OK w/ his...) but only because you are doing a lot of slow speed / tight quarters activity w/ them...
OTOH, the OP was talking about a 4WD off-road buggy, which presumably would be doing a lot less in the way of slow speed or tight quarters so the high power draw in a zero-speed turn isn't likely to be as much of a problem, and the lighter weight and higher energy efficiency of a brushless / gearless motor is an advantage...
IMHO the problem is dealing with the starting torque requirement but if you keep that activity to a minimum, it isn't as huge of a deal...
I actually had a kid show up at the Asylum today that is working on a project to adapt an electric trike (originally designed as a power assist pedal bike) for use by a quad... (I have pointed him at WCD, so he may be showing up asking for advice, please be nice to him...
) I pointed out that starting torque may be one of the bigger issues he has to deal with... Other than that it seemed doable.
ex-Gooserider