Totally get the losing control feeling, the first couple weeks on a new tool I kept second guessing every path and almost went back to hand coding out of pure stubbornness. Sticking with it paid off though, and now tweaking one curve across all my icons takes minutes instead of a whole afternoon. Kerning is still a mystery to me too, I just nudge pairs until they look okay and hope nobody notices.

Isn't it weird how we assume we're doing something right just because nobody ever told us otherwise? Same thing happens with hand washing, people scrub for like 5 seconds and think they're clean but the soap never even touches half their fingers. Or how everyone thinks they're a good driver until they ride with someone who actually follows the rules. Having a second person who does the same task shows you the gap real fast.