For many of us in this forum flying is a much-valued hobby, or perhaps more correctly, life obsession. As I underlined in an earlier post, we all have our own reasons for wanting to fly and, for many of us, the motivations vary from day to day. Personally, I don't find it useful to be too dogmatic about these things: my observation is that many pilots will enjoy flying anything and what we choose as our regular aircraft depends on a whole heap of factors, of which cost is only one.
For example, I love flying a Chippie or a Yak, and I love aerobatics. But my decision a few years ago was to buy a used P2002JF, whose virtues I also appreciate. Before going down that path I was, as 30-year "regular" GA pilot, quite skeptical about the LSA or VLA category. Looking back, no amount of armchair research brought out the real good and bad points of the VLAs: it wasn't until I put in a few hours, ditched the GA hubris, and began having a different kind of fun that I got a reasonably balanced view which, in my case, pointed to the VLA as the best long-term compromise. Had the VLA certification supported aerobatics it would have been a much better compromise and I sincerely hope that GA pilots in the next 50 years continue to have the option of aerobatics via new and classic aircraft.
My suggestion to cjm is to enjoy the chosen path, but to make a point of flying as many different types of aircraft as you can - advice I followed myself and which I've always given to new pilots. No aircraft is perfect for all applications and informed pilots form their own views on the compromises. But I'd happily try out your C42
