[quote]ORIGINAL: chopper man

I don't think it is about the value of kits verses arfs. I feel it's all about your interest in the hobby. Some of us including me just love to build, and therefore we also enjoy the experience of flying what we build. Others just have no interest in building for whatever reason, they just love to fly. I personnally am interested in building current day general aviation planes. Hard to find. I hope that people begin to find a bigger interest in building kits.
That's my 2 cents.
chopper man

[/quote

This pretty much is the case. ARF's are a option for the folks that just don't want to build for whatever reason, but do enjoy flying.
If you look at the ARF's out there, they have some value in them. Most are those 3D types and I as a bulider am not sure if I could build one of them as good as the manufactures do. I also can't fly 3D as my flying skills are just not there yet.
On the other hand, I have free time from time to time and flying is just not an option because of weather or other things. So to keep me from going bonkers sitting around idel I build.
YES it takes skill.
YES it costs more for sure
YES it takes a lot of time
YES the manaufactures love them as it keeps them in business. Think about it, If you weren't selling many kits and your bills are piling up would you not maybe look to ARF's if you thought it would keep bread on the table?.
Lets not knock ARF's, it is the way a lot of the new people in this hobby get started in it to begin with. I build because no ARF's we out there when I got into this money eating hobby. Now that I have been hooked on building for more years than I can remember, some how I still get a big dose of feel good when a ARF owner comes up and just looks at my plane and I have to hand him a paper towl so his drool won't get on my plane.