I was specifically addressing Aprilejoi's post where she says that she uses her KA for 90% of the kneading.  This can easily lead to over-kneading, and the dense dough that she describes.  Other things that can lead to over-dense dough:  Too much flour, not enough liquid, not enough yeast, old or ineffective yeast, over-proofing, under-proofing…….So yeah, pretty much anything.  The best way to prevent a lot of those problems is to find a well-proven recipe (like Grandmother Bread), preferably that uses weight measures instead of volume measures.  The King Arthur Flour book "Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques & Recipes Cookbook" is great for this, all recipes are given with weights, both metric & standard, and baker's percentages.  Doing your recipes by weight eliminates a lot of the guess work.  Good kitchen scales are relatively inexpensive, and worth their weight in gold if you like baking (and most especially if you like being able to reproduce excellent results).

Anyway, for people who don't like, don't want, or aren't able to knead by hand, folding is a great option for "normal" sized batches of bread dough.  I use it regularly for Suzanne's 2-loaf Grandmother Bread recipe without problems.

I will say that the best way to learn about your dough, and how it feels and acts at all different stages is to do things by hand!  The best way to know what terms like "smooth and pliable" and "loose and shaggy" mean is to see and feel them.  You learn what proper results are from the "windowpane test" by seeing it and feeling it and noticing the results in the finished product.  Maybe even keep a log of what you tried and what the results were, and things you can do differently for the next loaf.  Find a tried and true recipe, and work at it until you feel you've mastered it (Personally, I defined "mastered" as when I could reliably produce loaves with the characteristics I wanted).  Then transferring what you learned to a different recipe is a lot easier.  Bread is for most of us,  I think, more of a process than it is a result.  It took me about a year of making bread once a week before I felt like I really had a good grasp.  Although I'm still working on my baguette recipe…That's the other good thing about bread.  There's always something to try, to improve!

Absolutely agreed, Ross.  :)  I am always learning here, and enjoy the chance to share as well.  I just hope that the people in this thread who are frustrated with their bread keep trying!  It's soooo rewarding when you feel like you've "gotten it right," if there is such a thing with bread.