"...but it also requires at least a computer terminal and some form of storage to make it useful."
So what did you use for terminal and storage? Did you expand the memory beyond 4K?
The days of the kit-computer were on the way out when the triumvirate of Apple II/Commodore PET/TRS-80 Model I arrived in stores (unless you were handy with a soldering gun).
A bit later I bought a 6Mb hard drive, and designed and built an interface card for it and wrote the driver.
I put the Heathkit terminal, floppy drive, and cpu box together from their kits. They all worked the first try. (I paid part of my way through college soldering boards. Being able to solder well has paid off for me a lot over the years.)
The H11 was a bit pricey, but I wanted one real bad.
A couple of years later I put together a CP/M H89 but it never gave me that "real computer" feeling.