Its just one of those things, like the inconsistencies using the word "motor" and "engine", or why the plural for "house" is "houses", while "mouse" is not "mouses". It really doesn't bother me, though I probably wouldn't say "I assembled this from a kit" unless I was really trying to be humble.
BTW this is slightly off topic but I think in a few years (decades?) it won't even matter. I was visiting a plastic model site earlier today, and apparently when injection molded kits came out sometime in the '50's, modelers looked down on people who built them, ie no skill involved, etc. Article went on to say that it allowed more people to enjoy the hobby, drew many manufacturers who could now mass produce them, and generally produced a growth in the hobby. Having grown up with injection kits, I just assumed this was the way it was done. Additionally, many, many, moons back, I'm told that kit builders (balsa ones) were looked down on since the prevailing method was to design from scratch, I'm sure the same discussion took place, ie "assembled" should be the word used for KITS.
Me, while I prefer kits, plan on designing some of my own in the future, am excited about some of the ARFs I see around the field (hey, keep this a secret
). A few of the guys I fly with would not be there if they had to build, but I enjoy their company all the same, and we all try to help each other out.
Lets go fly some nice scale jobs, 3D planes, helis, (I do all 3 BTW) and whatever, regardless if they started out as kits or arfs
Maybe we should just use "is/was", ie "This was a kit", "This is an ARF"