I think it's too early (for me, anyway), to cast an opinion on string bowling.
As far as lane surfaces go, my 50+ years of experience no doubt, places synthetic surfaces far and above wood lanes both in terms of maintenance costs, labor and longevity. I used to work in a 24 lane house years ago. They were a lot of work to keep up. In addition, they had to be resurfaced every 2 years. That center switched to synthetics years ago. No more need for biannual resurfacing, no more filling divots, much less ball damage.They have been a huge improvement over wood surfaces.
In fact, when I saw this thread, I called another one of my longtime friends whose family has owned their center since 1948. I posed this question to him (wood v synthetics?).
"Synthetics are the best, hands down, in terms of cost, labor and longevity", was his reply.