Continuing the thread drift...
Step, it's not elitist, it's a factual statement. There is absolutely no reason Mr Cessna couldn't have given his high-wing trikes ailerons that are effective and nice to use. Likewise the rudder.
I take your point about aeroplanes being compromised in order to excel at a particular role - lifting heavy cargo out of short rough strips, for instance. And I wouldn't expect Mr Boeing or Mr Airbus to put 'nice handling' very high on the design requirement; safe handling and fuel efficiency would be, though.
My comment wasn't aimed at 'working' aeroplanes such as transports, but at what most on this forum (GA) will be doing - flying for fun!
You really must try a Chippy if you get the chance - the opposite end of the handling scene to the appalling Tiger Moth (which I found to be worse than a spamcan!). But like all aeroplanes it is compromised.
It is noisy in the cockpit. There is NO room to stow anything. You will get oily hands and clothes when you pre-flight it. It has a ludicrously short range (only 18 gallons of fuel). It is expensive to maintain. During aeros (it does graceful basic manouvres superbly) it loses height due the fixed pitch prop (lots of throttling back to stay withing rev limits) and the measly 145 bhp. And it is realistically only a VFR aeroplane. Oh, and with a cruise of 90 kts it is slow.
But its handling.... is sublime! I have flown very many types, and none come close. I know of no-one who has flown one who would disagree with that. And surely, if you are 'flying for fun', for the pure joy of flight rather than to get ASAP from A to B, then sublime handling is the no.1 prerequisite?