Yes, that probably is the bendix. You may want to get that fixed soon as it could damage the teeth on the ring gear (which is pressed onto the flywheel). That repair requires the removal of the transmission and then the flywheel.
The starter replacement shouldn’t be too expensive. And, yes,
plan on the car lasting a long, long time.
I changed the Bendix drive on the starter of our ‘66 Bonneville without changing out the entire starter. But that was a different era. Now the entire starter is probably throw-away for a $5 solenoid.