All of this reminds me of a argument I had with a young man years ago, who later went on to be an RAF Engineering Officer.
Brief introduction. We both come from the same town, Shrewsbury, in the County of Shropshire, England. This town is only a short distance from the village of Bayston Hill, in fact a very large field seperates both communities. The leading British fighter pilot of the Battle of Britain was Eric Lock who came from Bayston Hill.
The young man was arguing in favour of ARTFs, claiming that you can get them into the air very quickly. I said that if you built your own Spitfire, as an example, you could make sure that it was built properly and choose whatever markings you wanted to finish it off, Eric Lock's markings for instance. When buying an ARTF, most of which seem to be finished in Douglas Bader's markings, you cannot easily check the quality of the construction. He looked at me as if I was daft!
Now of course you can buy an ARTF without pre-attched vinyl and send off to a firm specialising in model markings for any insignia you like.
The last time I saw the young man, he had finished his service with the RAF, had grown his hair and was driving a drop-head Porsche!
So what do I know?