I’m an HVAC guy, hvac guys push gas because they don’t understand electric. Get 1 or more Mitsubishi electric heat pump systems. They’re about as BIFL as it comes. Personally I have natural gas with a BIFL boiler system and I’m putting in 4 Mitsubishi heat pumps and keeping the gas as backup heat only.

Possibly; some towns allow those sorts of cross-subsidies and some towns ban it. But two things are even more likely: (1) they are getting a higher profit on the gas units right now; (2) the guys you've been talking to are really good at installing gas furnaces, and are more confident that they can install the gas furnace correctly the first time. The biggest financial risk for most HVAC guys is breaking something when they install it -- now they need to pay out of their own pocket to fix it -- so they tend to recommend things that they know they can do, instead of branching out.

HVAC people just really hate heat pumps. I ran into the same problem for my rental which is basically the poster case for it (small size, well insulated, Midwestern area)

They never have specific answers to anything. "It just can't do it."

They don't have any response when I say that these are used all over Scandinavia without problem.

Unless the person spoke with has installed one and had specific problems that they can articulate, you can ignore them.

You didn’t say where you live, if you live in a place where it’s consistently below 20F I think I’d still with natural gas. As heat pumps begin to struggle as it gets that cold and electric is expensive.

I upgraded two years ago from a 1946 American standard oil converted to gas boiler to a newer boiler. I didn’t go electric because it’d cost 3-4x the price to heat my house in the winter.

Heat pumps are supreme in places with a mild winter or no winter. If you do go heat pump where it can get sub 20 for awhile then I’d recommend have an auxiliary heating system installed.