I fly out of three different clubs and I have seen the building part of the hobby come to an almost complete hault. Even some of the better builders I know have gone to the ARF. Each person has there own reasons and all of them seem to be good ones, money and time seem to be the biggest two reasons. One of the guys decided to give 3-D flying A try and tended to loose A lot of planes, it was cheaper to loose an Arf and A lot less weeping involved.
Any more I do more plans building then kits just because I like planes I don't ever see at any of the clubs I fly at.
That being said, I just came in from my shop after putting on the finishing touches to my new second hand 1/4 scale ARF Extra, I just couldn't pass up the deal.
The ARF V kits doesn't bother me at all, what really gets to me is seeing all the guys at the field buying there ARFs and then paying other people put them together and setting them up for them. Then taking them up to trim them before handing them over to them. This is just way too lazy. JMO