Yes, Big Al, making bread the old-fashioned way requires
that the dough be allowed to rise, then punched back down, at least once.
This does make the whole thing time-consuming.
I was a young lady -- a long time ago -- when I tried making bread.
Of course I had two generations of extended-family women about,
like my great-aunt Isabelle who was not exactly a superb cook
but she knew what was what, and gave me courage.
Besides, this is baking.
Baking, as any cook worth their salt will tell you,
is an exacting business, requiring precision.

And, if I say so myself, everybody thought the bread tasted good.

I've never baked bread with a machine;
the fact that baking requires precision
suggests that mechanizing the process would work,
provided that whoever built the machine knew what they were doing.

Plenty of below-the-BS-line Mudcatters fancy bread machines,
and they ought to have something to contribute to this thread.