Hello builders, I do build, not as much as I used to. Back about 50 years ago, if you wanted to fly an rc/cl/ff airplane you had to build it yourself. If you look at the guys flying in higher levels of IMACC competition, most of them do not build their own planes, in fact a lot of them have a builder/mechanic. Not in the scale arena, those are the builders, though they do have team scale. They have dropped the builder of the model rule in most all competitive events. It comes down to ability and inclination, to be a good builder, you will have to have had developed many different skills over the years. One LHS has a full time mechanic/tech who works on cars, airplanes, helicopters and he is never with out a stack of projects . I was at that particular shop a while back and a customer was being show an ARF from a major supplier and when the box was opened to show it to him his comment was "You mean I have to build it." This LHS has less than a hand full of real kits, the owner is just not interested in carrying them.
How many people would play golf if they had to build there own clubs.