honestly I think the lack of interest is because of the lack of places that still sell them. none at Wal-Mart, Target, Kmart. Toys R Us. . when I was younger (I was born in 1984) I got most of my kits at Hills and KB Toys. both long out of Business, in fact I used get Tamiya kits at KB Toys.
you can stick a carburetor in front of me and I wouldn't know half the parts in it. every car I've worked on in my life has been fuel injected and with a modern computer. todays car are not hard to work on, they just require different tools. plus todays cars are a lot more reliable. they don't require the same amount of attention cars from the 60's and 70's require.