1999 Cougar Starter and Flywheel

I pulled the starter of a 99 cougar (auto trans) because it was grinding and not spinning the motor over. There is some wear on the flywheel - a little less than the first 3rd of the teeth are wore off, but I'm thinking that if the starter got full engagement of what's left of the teeth the car should happily start for the next and probably last 50,000 miles of its life.

The starter gear seems really sluggish to kick out when I fired it on the bench. In fact it doesn't want to return either. The story is this starter has only been on there a couple of years, and judging by its external condition I'd say that is accurate, but it very well could have been a cheap peace of junk before it was even installed.

My question is - do these cars have a history of needing there flywheels changed, or should I try to get a high quality replacement starter and leave the somewhat wore flywheel alone?

I really don't want to drop the tranny out if I don't have to!!!

Thanks for your help...