As a matter of preference, I suggest newbies get an ARF for their FIRST plane.

Since the majority of newbies do not have any building skills, it is fairly easy for them to build a warp in or some other building fiasco they would not be aware of. Then when their "pride and joy" crashes they become disenchanted and leave the hobby. With an ARF for a first plane those problems are out of the picture and once they realize that they can actually fly a plane, they become more enthused about the hobby.

Now if they build a kit for their second plane and it doesn't fly properly and/or crashes, the newbie knows it wasn't their flying ability (in most cases ), it had to be something they did when building. In the mean time, while they are repairing/fixing the plane, they still have their ARF to fly.