I've owned full scale and unless you're flying aerobatics or something went wrong it's quite boring. The same would be true with flying a scale model of a Cessna in a scale manner. Boring. Flying warbirds is something I did for years. It got so boring I quit flying r/c altogether for a number of years. You can only go so low in a low or "photo" pass. The rolls and loops get to be like watching paint dry. For me 3d brought a little excitement and a lot more challenge back into the hobby. Big planes or small, it's all in what you want, or can afford, to risk where 3d is concerned. Toss in the tremendous increases in flight performance with larger planes and you can erroneously justify flying the big stuff when all you might be able to afford is the small.

Bottom line is if you can't afford to replace after a crash the level of aircraft you were flying was not affordable. If crashing is something that can't be tolerated then so is flying. Kind of a vicious circle. It's all about acceptable risk.