Well, Tim, warbirds are not for the timid, nor the folks on a budget. But if you have the skills and the money, why not?
I hear ya', if you've got it, do it. Life is short and you're dead forever.
But the combination of skills and finances generally don't come together in the same package. Just my experience, but if you have one, you generally can use more of the other.
Most guys who have the money to fly warbirds want to go out to the airfield, have it ready to go, do a walk around, check the oil and gas and head out. Much like you do in a standard GA aircraft. They don't get off on bruising knuckles dropping the cowling on a radial to drain the bottom 3 cylinders.
Most guys who have the time dig working on the bird, making it better. Improving this, messing with that. Screwing around with the radios or whatever. They'll spend hours out there on a Saturday making something work better. However, they have to deal with the constant bills that come along with it. As bad as owning a GA aircraft is, a Warbird is usually about 3X 4X for parts. Not as many of them around either.
I guess my basic point is there are two types of pilots. One type uses an aircraft as transportation/joy riding/ toy. They would really rather not bother with keeping it running. The other is the pilot who just flies 'cause he likes to fly and doing take offs and landings for most of a day to perfect a technique is nothing he would mind.
Having a Warbird for either of those guys has it's drawbacks. Not impossible, but you're gonna put a lot more time and money into one than with a GA (aka Cessna reference of my earlier post). The benefit is you get an airplane that looks cool and can usually do stuff a GA can't. But there is a price involved that may not be figured into when you see one for sale.