RS aero

Nope- I reckon the Aero is designed to captive the largest possible market, and return the largest it can against the investment of its rights holder.  Hence why it was launched with 3 rigs and one press release will tell you it's great for 95/100kg blokes, while another will show kids having a lot of fun sailing it, and FWIW, appearing to sail it with a lot of skill and control.

I see it as the modern day family Topper- fun for all the family on holiday, and a racing device for young teens and lightweight adults in due course.  The 9m rig, on such a lightweight, short hull?  Sounds to me to be too much of a compromise and will ultimately go the way of the 10.2 RS100 rig. 

don't want to come across as an RS apologist, but if they're demo boats being cited then they are going to be roughly abused- especially by the target demographic!  

I guess the intention for sailing centres and holiday companies was to get a product in line with a seasonal rotation policy- that's exactly how the windsurfing equipment works.  So again, a year old ex-sunsail one might be a bit shagged, but still serviceable; whereas two seasons on a greek beach and you might as well chop it up and recycle it.

As you say, a privately owned one's durability will take time to tell.  

Its an epoxy foam foam boat and should be treated as such. Will need more care than a topper obviously and probably a laser which is solid glass, but no evidence that its more susceptible to damage than any other foam cored boat. There has been a lot of abuse thrown at them in development as it was pretty obvious that if you build something very light some people may assume its fragile and you need to prove thats not the case more than any other similar boat. Treat it like you would a 100, d-one, 600 and its not going to be a problem. Ironically, being very light actually makes it less prone to damage out of the water as if dropped there isn't as much mass hitting anything.

...or any other such class (ab)used by youth  

When I see what our Juniors do with their Lasers...

Of course, I could point out to them the errors of their ways, but then I'd be a boring old git.  Actually, I do occasionally try to educate, but I could spend all day at it.