Mike, everything you say is technically correct, and enormously (and
accurately) detailed.
Catch-22 with your "I love my KitchenAid" is that it's an old unit,
very old - totally unlike what is being produced today. Sadly, the KA
advertisements suggest "quality" and trade on that premise; for token
baking stuff in the kitchen they're acceptable, the casual user.
Anyone else, those into baking - the consistent message repeated time
and again: Avoid KitchenAid.
It ends up being more expensive buying cheap or inferior products,
than it is (long term) to buy quality in the beginning, plus the huge
asset of using noteworthy tools throughout whatever you're doing.
Ed Okie, Florida