I've got a Kitchenaid but (until the bread machine died) I would mix the bread dough in the bread machine then move it to a bread tin to bake in the oven. I hated that huge thing in the bottom from where the mixing paddle was in the bread machine. Even when I wore out one bread machine and moved on to a machine with a paddle that collapsed for baking it still left and awful, hard clump in the bottom of the loaf.
If you have a bread maker, mixing in the bread maker and baking in a regular bread loaf tin in the oven is the way to go.
Once I wore out my second bread maker I started just using my KA for mixing bread and pizza dough. I overheated the KA once (I think it was from doing a quadruple batch of cookies...) and it started to not run so well. Sent it in for a repair and it came back good as new. Has been going fine for a few years since.
My favourite thing to cook with the KA is pavlova. Do they have that in the US, or is it an AUS/NZ thing? Anyway, it is like meringue, but bigger, and after you bake it you top it with whipped cream and fresh fruit. Anyway, the KA is excellent for whipping meringues, cream, making chocolate mousse - all those things you would be standing there mixing with a hand blender for 10 mins. I like that I can walk around the kitchen cleaning up, etc, while the egg whites are whipping or the bread dough is kneading.
I have gotten out of the habit since we've moved house three times in the last 18 months, but until then I would bake bread nearly every day, while also homeschooling our three kids. I think that routine and habit are the main things that keep it going. I would know that I had to have the dough started by a certain time if it was to be ready for lunch (my husband had a set lunch time that he would come home to us). If I was having a washout of a morning and didn't get the bread on in time I would make savoury scrolls in the oven for a change. Much faster than a loaf of bread.
I also have to add that our kids really miss our homemade bread and have been asking me to start making it again. I need to get back in the habit.