I agree 100% about that statement. Like I (and you, I'm sure) mean no offense to people who use it, but like it's games like these that do detract attention from our games.
What I mean by that is, these games have everything done for them.
All they have to do is add maps and events.
No wonder alot of these games are nearing demo stages so early on.
They don't have to code in battle systems- menus- or even setting up other simple things like showing text.
Like in sphere, as you said, you have to make everything some scratch. I'm the same in RM2k3. And with Rm2k3, I can only display text at the top or bottom of the screen, so I have to sprite every word in menu descriptions- where you can script it in RMXP to go anywhere on the screen. So this just takes time, not in RM2k3, but in paint just to do that, then convert the words to a picture lol.
So when new members look at our games, they expect demos early, and trash you when there is a bug or error with ANYTHING.
So excuse me for not copying and pasting a script that someone else did, or using a starter kit that has all your chipsets and character sets in already.
Now, again, this is only a rant, don't get ticked off people - with me saying this. There are a handful of good games that use the starter kit and they have my support.
But if your not bringing anything new to the table, ask yourself are you wasting your own time?