2walla, those are excellent questions. Another I would ask is are you looking for another ARF or do you want to build a plane instead of buying just another cookie cutter plane that looks like the next guy's?
Can you do figure 8s? Can you do 10 touch and go without ground looping or nosing over? Do you know how to stay ahead of the plane and how to get out of trouble without crashing?
What I have been witnessing in my club is the preponderance of foamy ARFs with what is called the SAFE system which allows the lazy pilot to flick a switch every time he feels the least bit uncomfortable flying. A pilot learns nothing from this. He is only steering it around in circles and
never learns what it takes to remain out of trouble or for that matter learning to really fly a plane. They will never progress beyond that. They have limited themselves to flying only one kind of plane....one that will take over for them should they stumble the least little bit.
Companies like Horizon and Tower have done a great disservice to the hobby community with this kind of nonsense. We have people in our club who fly only these types of planes and my attitude towards these people is not worth mentioning.