Welcome to the site Christopher.
I have lots of experience with both reals mentioned. There's nothing wrong with the Zebco you mentioned. As a kid I started with the old wrap type reels, then moved up to the spincast types. You need to be diligent about making sure the thumb button is pressed before you shoot. I personally press mine in as soon as I have retrieved an arrow and have it back on the shelf. I check it often to make sure it's depressed. You don't want to let an arrow go with the button in the up position. There have been serious accidents and death from arrows coming back into the shooters face.
I have two of the retriever reels, one slotted, one not. I loved them when I first bought them, but later ran into line tracking problems. The retrievers have a lever that you pull in with the index finger of your bow arm. Once pulled in, it brings two rubber coated wheels together that reel in your line. The problem I ran into was when fighting fish, the line would get pulled off to the side off the rubber on the wheels. The line would bind up, making retrieval impossible. When the lever isn't pulled, the reel is always in a free spool mode that allows the line to pull out easily. In other words if you catch your line on a twig or something and you are not paying attention, you will have a big mess to deal with.
I still use both types, but I prefer the spincast types like the Zebco you mentioned. Another pro for these reels is having a drag to use on big fish.
I hope this helps you as far as the gear goes.
