Craig, I wasn't bad-mouthing ARF's or the industry. Frankly ARF's create better access for people to enter the hobby and we all benefit from that through lower prices, better selection, more flying sites, etc. Efficiency and specialization play a role in ones professional occupation certainly. But my point was that hobbies like R/C (or baking) are done for the pleasure of the experience. When we relegate more of the experience to someone else we rob ourselves of pleasure. Few things smell as wonderful as a house where bread is baking. When we take the convenience route it leads to a net loss in skills and the pleasure factor. People I know who fly ARF's go through planes so fast I seldom see the same plane twice at my field. Partly because they can't repair them (skill loss) and partly because they lose interest as soon as they see it fly a few times (no sense of accomplishment).

True, picking kits looks arbitrary but only a fraction of folks will ever have sufficient interest or discipline to learn the skills needed for success in model airplane design. It is a hobby after all. Kits seem to me a good compromise on the commitment/accomplishment curve.

(BTW, specialization works great until the environment changes. Suddenly that specialization isn't worth a warm bucket of spit. Rats and cockroaches aren't on the endangered list for a reason.)