ORIGINAL: Mode One
I think if you want to get good at flying scale models, you need to fly the wings off of sport models, as they get flown and don't sit on the bench collecting dust.
I'd ammend this as follows: "I think if you want to get good at flying scale models, you need to fly the wings off of sport SCALE models, as they get flown and don't sit on the bench collecting dust." If there were reasonably priced WWI ARFs (akin to that very nice $120 CMP Zero) I'd have a fleet of them and they'd get the heck flown out of them. Eventually, the Puppeteer will get the heck flown out of it and then it will be time to build another one.
In short, I don't think it really matters what you fly and long as you fly. More hours equals better pilot.