I hear your frustration. The good news is if your mower is still under warranty, any factory defects are generally covered.
Here are the facts about recalls vs. notices and warranty stuff:
A Recall Notice, under terms of the warranty and rules established by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, is only issued and distributed to registered customers when a product is determined to have a safety issue or risk. When a Recall Notice is issued, the company has a legal obligation to notify as many customers of effected units as possible, and to repair, replace, or refund for all the units, forever. Pretty serious stuff, but we are talking about safety, where a consumer may be injured or property could be damaged, etc. Not to be taken lightly, and not to be used if there just something that broke on a product.
Now if there is a non-safety problem, such as hard-starting, where Honda recognized it was a factory defect, Honda will issue a Service Bulletin to its dealer network and advise them how to make the repairs and what countermeasure parts / procedure to use to resolve the problem. In such cases, any products with in the effected group of products with the problem that are still under warranty are repaired at no cost to the customer. The key to making this system work, of course, is the consumer has to recognize there is a problem and take it to a dealer for evaluation.
Robert, thanks for reminding me of the purpose of a recall and for the other information. I'll try to remember to post after getting service.
