The 182 is a lovely aeroplane, I would say go for it. If I had the dosh it would be my aircraft of choice.
It was my first 'complex' aircraft although as mentioned above you will touch the blue knob about four times during a normal flight and the cowl flaps are no problem at all. It took all of ten minutes to get my head around it. Your further training bits like nav etc will not feature faffing with the cowl flaps and wobbly controller anyway apart from departing and landing so in that respect it's no different to a 172. Just smoother and a bit faster. As for being heavier on the controls, it's nowhere near as heavy as an Arrow IMO. Yes you need to keep it in trim but you should be doing that with every aircraft you fly. There's nothing like dropping flaps twenty, two up, with about a third fuel on board and letting it rip down a short grass strip, Cessna got it bang on with the 182.
Enjoy it, I'm quite envious!