I've made several batches of wine, but I'm not an expert by any means. I've made it from a kit, from canned fruit, from juice, and from fresh fruit/ grapes. The main thing that I have learned is that you can't get good wine from bad ingredients. I made a batch of wine from apples that didn't smell or taste..well, appley. They smelled more like potatoes and weren't very sweet. Some kind of canning apple, I think. There's 5 gallons of 8% apple wine in my shed waiting for Hell to freeze over. Smells like shoe polish and tastes just as bad. That's the only bad batch I've had. Made a nice one out of canned peaches and a box of white raisins. The best was made from some muscadine grapes one of the girls I work with brought in. Don't try banannas !
I'm a fan of sweeter wines. I guess beauty lies in the tastebuds of the beholder. I'm just saying that depending on your level of wine sophistication, you can make a wine to suit your taste without too much trouble. Go for the $80 kit if you want, or make a damn fine wine for around $10 worth of fruit and yeast. It's really not that complicated, or doesn't have to be.
Just my 2 cents worth.