Cory
Relax. Take a deep breath.
I disagree with Craig that "they are basically useless when it comes to making dough."
You just need to recognize that it has batch size limitations. Above a 1200 gram dough my machine will bog down and start to overheat, so if your batches are below this, you should have no problem. In my experience Kitchenaid is responsive if you have a problem.
I would venture a guess that most members that use mechanical kneading are using Kitchenaid. Some members prefer spiral, fork, or hand mixing so they may never like a planetary mixer like your Kitchenaid.
Bob