I would suggest that you probably don't want to build an airplane just to have an airplane. The building process is a separate hobby, which is one that I think is fantastic! Not everyone agrees. If you consider building as a path to aircraft ownership instead of as a hobby of its own, I think you will likely be disappointed. Keep in mind that you can also buy a flying RV-8 if that is the type that you want. So first, I would separate the two issues. First, decide on whether or not an experimental airplane is the one that you would like to own. If that turns out to be the case, then decide on whether you are interested in building it or just flying it.
So step one would be to decide on which airplane you would like to have. Since this is such a large purchase, I would suggest that you do some investigative reporting of your 4 points and a few more. We posters can give you all sorts of anecdotal and hearsay evidence, which has some value. But perhaps the best answers can come from your own research. For instance:
1: Call AUA or the EAA insurance folks and get tire-kicker quotes based on your actual pilot experience for the RV-8, Archer, Arrow, and Skyhawk. Be sure to consider both the tailwheel and the nosewheel options on the RV. Why base your decisions on rumors when you can have the cold hard numbers at the cost of only 30 minutes on the phone?
2: Research the values of the airplanes that you are looking at. Keep in mind that a low resale value is also a low purchase price when you are the buyer, and right now the values are down on everything. Barnstormers and trade a plane are great sources. Most people would agree that if you buy a competitively priced airplane now and take care of it for a few years, you won't sell it for less than you bought it for.
3: Call your local flight school or local instructors (depending on how it is structured) and ask around. Back when I was a full-time instructor I would have not had any problem flying in a widely proven experimental like an RV, and I didn't get the impression that I was alone in that regard. Same thing as number 1 here- free phone calls give you real answers.
4: Before you spend so much money on buying and building, I would say it is a good value to fly the airplanes you are considering, even if it is expensive to do so. If you had to spend $500 to get a ride in a tailwheel RV, wouldn't that be worth not spending $80,000 on an airplane that turned out to be twitchy by your standards? I would suggest that the tailwheel RV is anything but twitchy, but you could find out for yourself and have the best results. By flying one you might encounter other aspects that you hadn't thought of. You might not like the feeling of the bubble canopy, or you might discover that the bubble canopy is the only way to fly.
Here are a few more:
5: Think about maintenance costs. If your certificated airplane burns out its highly obsolete incandescent landling light, how much is it going to cost to replace it? In an RV, you can use off-the-shelf automotive parts, or even lifetime LEDs, all without STCs. The landing lights are only one example of outdated technology that gets stuck in certified airplanes because of the red tape required to make changes. Keep in mind that the condition inspection in the experimental will probably be less expensive than an annual in a certified (all else being equal), and the cost of certified parts is absolutely outrageous.
6: Look at weight and balance, cruise speed, and fuel consumption. The aircraft that you have listed represent a wide range of missions. The RV-8 is a 2-seater, while the others are 4. The arrow with retractable gear is going to have its own cans of worms. Think about how much you are wanting to carry and how far you are wanting to go for the majority of your flights, keeping in mind that one airplane is not going to fill all of your needs. You might have to rent occasionally if you need more lift or better IFR capability for instance.
The bottom line of my advice is to place more emphasis on deciding on the type of airplane that you would like to own, then focus on the logistics of making that happen. You'll go through the purchase process once, but you'll be flying the thing for years (hopefully).