Ollie, I hope that you are not losing sleep over this. With any hobby there is a spectrum of experience and involvement. There was even a point in time when you did not know where the COG was. You were interested and you found out. You also found out how to calculate it and how varying it affected performance.

To have the "full" experience of model aviation one must study a multitude of disciplines. Some people will fly their ARF and be happy. Some will fly their ARF, tinker, learn, etc. Some will crash and go back to RC cars. It all depends on your level of motivation and interest.