I honestly believe this is nonsense. I have almost no experience with SMD soldering and I would not hesitate to buy a uSupply kit.
The question is how much extra over the cost of an assembled board are you prepared to pay for a kit? Twice as much?
Assembling kits along with all the documentation is a lot of work and smd would make it probably be more work then through-hole components.
Then there is all the requests for missing parts because someone did not realize they dropped a smd resistor onto the carpet. I assume you would expect Dave to pay for the cost of shipping missing parts? It is very expensive to post items internationally from Australia.
Would you expect Dave to be able to supply lost or damaged components at a reasonable price? Would $30 for a single smd resistor + postage be a fair price or would you be expecting Dave to do it for $3?
Then how many kits would never work? If Dave sold kits and half of them never worked, it would not be a good result, no matter how well meaning people are. If he sells assembled and tested boards, then 100% of purchasers will receive working boards.
Would you expect Dave to answer emails about how to fix a non-working µSupply board, or even to offer a service to repair a board? Usually when a kit company offers a send-it-in-for-repair service, they just replace the unfixable mess from the customer with a properly assembled board and in this case, the kit price may have to include the cost of a replacement assembled board right from the start.
Richard.