What a hoot!
I can just picture all the scratchbuilders chuckling at the hubris of the kitbuilders, thinking, "Someone else designed it for you, someone else defined the part structure, someone else wrote instructions for you, someone else selected the materials, someone else laser cut all the pieces for you, someone else chose all the hardware that's included, and then you 'built' the kit."
Really, guys, nobody disputes that it takes much more skill and effort to construct a kit than an ARF, and more yet to build from plans, and still more to work from your own designs. I don't understand all the vitriol around the choice of a word. Our building skills are not threatened if someone says they "built" an ARF.
BTW: Webster definition for "assemble": to construct from individual pieces. Sounds like a kit to me. I don't care, I use either word interchangeably.