I think the main issue missing is "How much do you value your time?? How much free time do you have??"

Another item missing is ARF's, which is sort of 1/2 way between RTF and kit.

A RTF is one evening at the most then fly the next day.

A ARF is maybe one week of evenings.

A kit is multiple  months of evenings at the very least.

I have gone all three ways (RTF, ARF and kit). Kit building is not for everyone and at the current cost of ARF's/RTF's, a kit build really doesn't save you any money. There are good ARF's/RTF's and there are bad, there are also mistakes made during a kit build (especially for new builders). Kit building has a huge degree of satisfaction but if you screw up and crash and burn on maiden then you watched 3 months of time go down the drain.

P.S. - As a disclaimer I am currently helping my son (12 years old) kit build a small plane but my next personal project is a ARF electric converted to glow.