My situation's a little different. I got bored with my simulator and haven't used in for over a year.

The Extra or Cap vs. the Skylane are Ferraris vs. Ford pickups. Plenty different birds.

If you're not totally sure, get a cheap airframe and a nice engine and move it into the third plane when you know better where you're headed. Everyone needs a "clunker" sport plane anyway. Fun flies, ski plane, etc., etc. Any of the stick (Ultra/Ugly/Big/etc., etc.) clones with the upper recommended engine is a good choice for a second plane in competent hands. They are fun to fly and rugged. Put a .70 4-stroke in a .40 size stick variety and it's even more enjoyable. I had a GP Big Stik with an OS 70 and it was my most flown plane . . . until a freak midair collision that broke both wing bolts at 300 ft. That crash was so hard I got dirt in the transmitter. I had converted that plane to a tail-dragger and it was a joy to fly. We didn't find the wing for two weeks - it just twirled away gracefully.

I fly grass field, and I see scale planes take landing gear damage from rough terrain that the sport planes shrug off. I have an SK/50 from Kangke that I recommend highly if you are leaning towards a realistic/scale flight as opposed to a 3-D/Extra wild aerobics. It has a pretty high wing loading (& tapered wings), and you'd have to prop it right for a torque roll (if you're into such things) but it has an over size rudder and lots of control throw to help. It is a sweet flier and would be a good practice pattern plane (I can do axial rolls with the differential aileron set).

The Big Stik had much better low speed handling. The SK 50 comes in a little hot unless you pattern your landing carefully and bleed off height and speed before the final. But you won't outgrow it in a season.