If you are sticking with the major manufacturers with established reputations, the ARFs are good enough for the top competitors in the country along with easily 95% of all RC pilots in the world. Yes, kits can be built stronger and made more durable, and you can customize a kit to suit your preferences. Yes, scratch building can give you a plane that is both stronger than an ARF and lighter too if you are meticulous with your wood selection and use good building techniques. That said, ARFs from (in no particular order) Hangar 9, Top Flite, Phoenix, Aeroworks, CompArf and others are very serviceable airplanes that will fly nicely if you set them up properly and take the time to do good flight trimming. Of course, proper setup and trimming is necessary on a hand built plane too, but it's generally not necessary to explain to to the guys who like working on their planes. The ARF crowd is more prone to the "unbox it, fly it, and if I don't like it, sell it" mentality. If you decide a couple of years into this that you want to own something nicer than the ARFs with lots of scale detailing and such, it'll be time then to consider a kit or plans from Nosen or Ziroli. But you have nothing to worry about with buying ARFs, as the vast majority of RC pilots today fly nothing else.