>The photos I get from it are far far better than every point and shoot or smartphone camera I've ever owned

Without knowing what are those cameras is difficult to know the reason. But a good high end compact camera, these days, tend to produce better images than kit lenses. Now, there's nothing wrong about kit lenses. I used one for a year until I was comfortable enough to jump to a better option. But these days I'm giving the same advice Marco does. Unless you have a very specific reason to shoot with an SLR or are willing to buy body and less separately, go for a compact with a good sensor size, manual controls and a good lens.

But it's just an advice, not a law written on stone.