........ Actually several people have told me that heat pumps are very, very, very common in this area for new systems........
I'm not surprised by that. Homebuilders are forever looking to find ways to reduce their cost, a large cost being labor, particularly labor with some skill. It is much quicker to run a heavy Romex to different places in a house than it is to run gas pipe. Furthermore, since all houses will have electrical service anyway, the heating via electricity is an add-on, unlike gas, which requires a tap-in at the street main, service line to house, meter and regulator, etc. etc.
And price-point of the houses figures into it, too. In my area, there was incredible growth since about year 2000. The new houses being built were primarily two-story, all have gas, with multiple HVAC systems. Some have three systems. They are not cheaper houses, that's for sure!
We have a 2500+ sq. ft. single-story house that was built before the boom. We have two units, as the house is nicely divided between living area and bedrooms, and lends itself well to day/night reversal of occupancy, therefore thermostat settings.
Spa heater - I would suggest before making any decision, to look at the BTU per hour output rates of gas versus electric heaters. You may find that electrical units available with reasonable mechanics are too low of output. Like may be fine in say San Antonio or Austin, but not here. A mistake would be very $$$ to fix!
That said, I don't think that preferring all electric makes one mentally unstable.
No, certainly not. I used that example because of how rare it is, it was the only example I have of anyone having all the gas fixtures ripped out and going all-electric, and that was in a northern climate. She really did have unreasonable fears, though it seems not of fire! She was a "gardener", whose idea of gardening was to rip out just about anything green, pile it into her barrel she used for burning stuff, and having pre-stuffed the bottom of it with newspaper, setting it alight. But it belched out smoke and noxious smells, no flame, for many many hours. Of which she wasn't home, she'd head out for an afternoon of shopping while it gassed the neighborhood. I think her deck count was below 52.