Like you, If you flew you built in the "early days". The last plane built in my shop before Katrina was a quarter scale CUB. Not sure if it GP or SIG. Covered it with one of the fabrics. Painted it with auto paint. Flew good. Many people at the field liked the plane and of course I was proud. The thing about that CUB is it was the only one of its kind.
Today at the field I was doing my trainer thing with two guys. A man in the club come out and shoots the old bull with us. Stories of all sorts of how it was. A second guy comes out. From the back of his truck came a F4-U Corsair. Giant scale only three quartes built. The new guys were wide eyed. After a short conversation the plane went from one truck to the other.
The fun and the joy of the questions the new guys asked was fun. I did my best to tell them the plane had it's own story. Not finished you could see the fine work that went into the aircraft. Will it be finised? Don't know. What I do know is these two new guys were thrilled to see the plane. Some how just by the way these new guys acted. I feel the balsa dust will fly for a long time.
I think there will be room for kits in the world of ARF for many years to come. If not it will be plans, I voted for ARF and plans.