Part of the starting issue is that to get a reciprocating aircraft engine to start, you have to get the mixture into a runnable range without the benefit of modern digital technology.
To get a reliable start, normal procedure is to start either too lean or too rich and transition to the opposite condition and if the ignition system is working, you will get a start somewhere in the middle. With big radials, a start near the lean condition will often cause a damaging backfire, so it is usually better to start from the too rich condition and transition towards lean. At least that is what we did in the T-28 and C-1A if I remember correctly. On the R-1820 we were supposed to turn the engine over by hand first before attempting to use the starter to avoid the oil hydraulic lock problem and resultant blowing off the cylinder head.