I suspect there is more to this statement than people would like to admit.

I look at the Sebart Wind 50E. It's 65" long, with a 62" span, and it comes in at roughly 6.5 pounds RTF (unless you use heavy components) for $340. That's what we used to pay for a kit for a pattern airplane of the same size when they were in vogue. $350 for a fuse, some foam cores, and some small, hand-drawn 'plans' from R/C City.

Scaling up, you gain 8.8 ounces from the motor (going from Hacker A50 to Q80), and you pickup another 26 ounces for the increased battery size. So you're roughly at 2.3 pounds available for airframe weight. Now obviously this is not a perfect calculation because things like servos, linkages, etc. will get heavier as well. But I find it difficult to believe looking at the construction that it couldn't be enlarged to 2m length using the same construction methods and still make weight.

Yet the 2M all composite version costs $2000. Seems to me Sebart (or others) could build a 2m airplane for a lot less money, but when people WILL spend $2-5k for an ARF airframe.. why bother?