Why Bread

While I have many friends and relatives who cook not everybody bakes. And most who do bake do baking of the sweets variety. Why is bread baking seen as impressive?

The reasons I bake my own bread:

- I prefer artisan-style breads with crunchy/crackly crusts and soft, well-aerated interiors. These breads are:

A. expensive ($2 for a baguette!?)
B. not sold at convenient locations (20- 30 mins to the Trader Joes, fancy bakery, or Whole Paycheck)

- I grew up in a household where bread was baked. (Not regularly, but often enough that it was not an anomaly)

- Once you start messing with bread- it's hard to turn back as it is so eminently fascinating. (How do you take the same 4 ingredients: Flour, yeast, salt and water and end up with such an infinite variety of things?)

I have some theories as to why more people don't bake their own bread:

-Bread requires forethought (at least 3-4 hours and up to weeks depending)

-Bread requires time (see above)

-Maybe seen as labor intensive? (Too much work and what if it doesn't turn out right?)

I'd be curious to know if you bake bread. If you do- why? If you don't- would you ever? Why or why not?