Cyclic,
That's an interesting way to put it. And hit the bullseye.

A bunch of the ARFs are excellent in every way. Shape, design, construction. But almost always have one or two kinks that simply shout "SORRY BUT WE DON'T ACTUALLY FLY these things, we just 'design' and manufacture them" But there are a bunch of others that look silly when there is no excuse for it. There certainly is no reason the P38 has to look so stupid.

I'd suggest that the underlying reason is simple. The ARF factories are run by people who branched out of the toy manufacturing sector there in China. And they don't actually have any background in modeling, just in toys. But that's just a guess.