In my limited experience, I am learing I would actually rather a short kit, than a complete one. Lets take my TF GE GS Corsair. I will be replacing the cowl with a fiberglass cowl from Fiberglass specialties. I will be ditching the plastic oil coolers for hand carved balsa cooler, I will be replacing some of the hardware with better hardware, I have already started cutting new pieces to better mimic true scale features and that is meaning some of the supplied balsa stick will not be used. All this means I paid for items I did not need. A short kit would solve this because I can plan the build better and get the good parts from the start and not invest in the substandard parts supplied with a near complete kit.

As long as there are plans, balsa, bass wood, and plywood, there will be "kits" to build planes. They just might be different than most of us are used to.

Unfortunatly, I did not have the financial means to support my hobby prior to now, so I could not help keep the kit mfgs in business, but now that I am getting into the hobby again, I will just find ways to cure my cravings to build.