Latest loaves and thoughts on kneading

I have been baking for a bit over six months. I posted a while back that buying a rolling pin to gently roll the dough before shaping and taking a lot more care in shaping was giving me much better shaped finished loaves. I then plateaued for a while. I was still bugged that my loaves were generally flatter than bought sourdough and had a slightly floury/doughy taste and sometimes texture. I suspected that this was a side-effect of a non-knead method, not not kneading meant the dough didn't develop sufficient gluten structure to hold its shape in the oven and under-developed dough retained a slight floury taste. So I bit the bullet and kneaded my last two loves for 20 mins, 10 before the salt and 10 after and... presto! Much taller final loaf with a breadier flavour and texture. I'm nto sure that my logic is correct, but it seems to make sense...