Donny,
I guess it sort of depends on how you look at it. To me, football is a sport, baseball is a sport, track and field is a sport, basketball is a sport. They are athletic endeavors in which one team is tested against another or against the clock. To me, golf is a pastime as is billards. Obviously, a lot disagree. Tiger Woods makes a lot of money from what I look at as a pastime. But then, I think golf is evil but that's me. Go figure.
I see model planes as a hobby. Can be an intense one that takes way too much of my time sometimes, but still a hobby. But as I say, it depends on how you look at it. I play computer games (also too much). To me they are just that; games. Some make money from it and there are big dollars in online competitions, but it's not a sport. I used to play the game Magic: The Gatherings competitively. And the competition could be quite fierce. Believe me, flying model planes is nothing compared to a high level regional Magic tournament when it comes to high level stressors. But it's not a sport even though some guys make a lot of money at it (from competition purses).
So as I say, it depends on how you look at it. Truth is, I don't care all that much. The local scene isn't likely to change much. Outside of a couple of guys like Leo (who is clearly off his meds), few around here want the nature of the thing to change much. If a guy uses a wing from Bob Hunt or whoever, so what? He built the rest of the plane and it doesn't bother me at all. I don't much care when guys fly ARFs, either. I'll admit that I like things the way they are, more or less. If it changes; the BOM goes away, we're invaded by a cloud of ARFS, this hobby becomes a spotlight sport on ESPN, whatever, I'll take a look and see if I still want to do it. If not, I guess it's back to computer games.