Hey, Dodger, I would respectfully disagree with you. The aim and purpose of our hobby and any other is to have fun. For most of us that entails trying to get better with every build. However, for some people just the building itself is fun, and they have no desire to go beyond a certain point. You mentioned golf, and I have a good example for you. My cousin's wife decided she wanted to take up golf with him. She got some clubs, and he showed her the basics of the game. Now, he is a very good golfer, and she, naturally, was not. It didn't matter to her if she made an 8 on a par 4 or whatever. For her, the fun was hitting the ball around the course. After several rounds, her husband tried to adjust her swing and stance and all those other things, but she said "I'm having fun like this". He made some comment about if you're not going to get better why don't you quit? Guess what, she did, right there on the spot. Having to do the things to get better spoiled the fun for her, and I'm sure that is true of other hobbies. As has been stated several times, build for yourself and enjoy the hobby. I could never enjoy a build if I tried to go to the level of most of the folks on this board. So, I build to my level and have a ball doing it.
Slightly off topic, Dan, but thank you for what you did with Aoshima and the 'Cuda model. It's good to have modelers working with the model companies to help us get really good kits produced.