All mowers should be Victa 2 strokes.
Fair enough you want the forum to be here to give the right good advice. But i do not see that it was Bad advice.
I have stripped down a victa and it looked the same as that. Out of necessity it got new rings and little else and some time on the piston and i think i might have used a hone on the bore. 8 years later that mower was still going strong. Not bad considering it had never been in a shed the whole time i owned it.
Cant see how thas bad advice.
Bob.