Is a brushless cordless drill worth the extra money?

For most homeowners, yes if you can stretch the budget. Across the reviewers we read, brushless motors deliver more runtime per battery, run cooler under load, and tend to last longer because there are no carbon brushes to wear. If you only drill occasionally, a brushed DeWalt DCD771-class drill is still rated very highly by verified-purchase reviewers and costs noticeably less.