$24 pricey? Come one man!... your hands are worth far more than that. Give it a shot. If they feel uncomfortable, I'm sure like most humans that do things they don't like, they get use to it.
Here's my story on leather gloves, hands, vibration and nerves...
Almost 30 years ago as a kid knee-high to a grasshopper, I started bare-handed because I didn't like the feeling of gloves. The following year I went to gloves to prevent the pine pitch and other things from getting on or into my hands.
Now here's the interesting part: I have a friend who got started the same time, decide to almost never wear gloves...at least during warmer periods. His hands look extremely worn out, callouses, old scars, cuts and remains of several surgery procedures. When I look at his hands, they look dry, old and pruned.
The difference is that I wore gloves most all the time. My hands are soft, scar and callous-free. They look like the hands of a banker...or a hand model. LOL!
Here's the kicker...
He had severe nerve damage that leads to extreme numbness in his hands and fingers. He can't hardly feel anything and when he works, he needs to look at what he's doing because he can't feel when he holds most small objects. I still feel things with good sensitivity. I'll give an example: I can still feel small woodticks that are on my dogs when I search for them. I can tell the flat or rounded side of a small washer.(yes, washers are not the same on both sides) One thing I can say is that I don't feel temperatures as well. I can tolerate hot water on my hands better than anyone I know and that's because of the nerve damage that has happened to me running chainsaws most all my life.(vibration)
So although wearing normal leather gloves helps considerably in keeping them looking healthy, etc, and keeping them from bad nerve damage, they won't perform miracles. If leather helped me that much, I wonder if I used gel or padded gloves what that would have done for me? Hmm?
Gloves do work my fellow tree workers. Use them!
StihlRockin'