As an engineer who really enjoys designing, building, and testing new products, I agree with the statement that one should build a boat for the enjoyment of building it, and if one doesn't particularly enjoy building, buy the best used boat one can afford. In today's world, where most manufacturing processes are very efficient, the home builder can seldom compete against the pros except in special circumstances -- e.g. an innovative new design, or an especially good source of cheap used parts, or artificially inflated prices such as due to weird tax laws.

BTW, do folks outside the U.S. have to sales tax (or VAT, GST, etc.) again each time a used vessel is sold?

That having been said, there are those of us who really do build for the love of building. Who can actually enjoy finishing well behind those who spent more time building skills than boats. I guess we're pretty crazy, though.