I guess I'm with scalecraft (above). I've built numerous kits and enjoy the experience of seeing the box of balsa become recognizable as a plane, but I have also bashed a few ARFs and I'm leaning more in that direction now.
To me an ARF is merely a starting point...someone elses "preped canvass" waiting for an artist to finish the masterpiece. I can get plenty of scratch and plan building in as well...Just had an 85% totaled crash of one of my oldest and favorite flyers, battery connection failed on the backside of a loop-resultstraight down at WOT from @ 250' and an impressive spray of balsa/covering confetti at impact! The kit is no longer available, so now I have the plans, the remains, the original remains of the kit's diecut sheets, a stack of balsa and plywood, and the ideas, time, and desire to rebuild it and make some of the mods to make it better than the original kit. Elmo will yet ride in his HobbyDynamics Sportee 40 again!
Whilst doing that project there's a Royal P-51 kit in the finishing stages, a scratch/plan built 'clipped wing' for my GreatPlanes Cub (wanted to keep the full wing intact as well for float flying), and a no name KI-61 'tony' ARF pretty well deconstructed and awaiting mods and reassembly.
I really like the building process and dreaming of the flying, along with a healthy dose of the actuall flying....put me at 60%build(50/50 scratch-ARF)and30%flying...the remaining 10% is reserved for planning and daydreaming