The way I see it, ARF's simply don't have the scale qualities that a well-built kit has. I have never built a Kit, much less a scale one...but I know I don't have the finishing skills to finish an entire airplane well. If a person is going to seriously compete with an ARF, let them...but it's going to take a lot of modifications to get the plane even near the level of a good kit. Also, the plane isn't going to look as good unless a GREAT job is done at fixing it. I mean, modifying an ARF is a matter of patching flaws. A well-built kit has scale characteristics designed into it.
Does that make any sense? Oh well, that's my opinion. Oh, just to let y'all know...I love kits. I've been dying to build one for the whole year and a half I've been in this hobby, but as a 17-year-old High School Senior I'm tied up in school and school-related things about 14 hours a day. Also, my parents are against the idea of me building a kit (the mess and all). My point is, I can see where all of you have a perfectly valid point...especially the kit-only advocates' points. I'm just saying, at least I have a valid point (I hope). I mean, what stock ARF looks like those biplanes from the first page?