No CLPA plane makes maneuvers as violent as a large RC 3D bird, nor will it ever be subjected to such motor torques. And look inside the 3D airframe and be amazed at how little structure there is. Yes we pull from the side - but for the most part our wings are one piece and glued to the fuse so we have even more strength.
Stunt ships were traditionally built with ultra-strong noses to get a consistent engine run because we needed to tame the vibration of an out-of-balance single cylinder engine in order to keep the fuel from foaming and jumping around and second, to be easy to build with an Xacto knife and sandpaper.
In todays CAD to LASER design world, we can easily built stronger, lighter structures, and electric has tamed the vibration problem.
The stone age didn't end because we ran out of stones, something better came along.
Be bold and try something new.
I'm building two electrics this winter. One has balsa/CF/balsa nose with a pretty traditional cowl. The other is a scale(ish) Laser with the entire front half of the top of the fuse (back of the canopy to firewall) removable for battery and access to the controls. It's proof-of-concept and if viable ver.2 will have a removable wing. FEA told me that 3/32" balsa with 1/8" Lite Ply was the way to go. Given the omission of the maple motor mounts and and crutch and floor of a Big Jim nose the weight is less than a "traditional" structure and it's more than strong enough for flying or the impulses of a hard landing. 1/16" Lite Ply would be adequate, but really, my planes tend to be tail heavy and I end up adding weight to the nose anyway so I figured I'd just use wood instead.
Chuck