"The ARC market never materialized, so I don't think there are many (if any) commercially available ARC's. For me, covering the plane is the time-consuming (and difficult) part, so ARC's never made sense to me and apparently the market agrees. "

The ARC market is alive and well, there are many ARC planes available. Most of them are large aerobatic models. You dont see it advertised as much but a lot of of the major aerobatic companies offer them in ARF, ARC, and a solid color option. The reasoning behind ARC in this market is that if you use your plane to compete you dont want it to blend in with the other ones out there. It allows you to use your own creativity and since the chinese kids still havent gotten covering down to a science then it allows you to do a better job (considering you can cover halfway good)