Great points Ken! Kentico is very flexible when it comes to development, which is why there are so many aspx and acsx pages in the project. The website is recommended because you can extend so much of the UI (CMSDesk, CMSSiteManager, webparts, modules, etc.). Here is a simple example, I wanted to allow a specific role to be able to "log in" as a user. Typically this is only available to administrators, but I was able to modify the code behind with ease to allow for this to happen. Just like developing a web app vs. a website, you can easily update a website without the need to recompile down to a .dll everytime a simple update is made.

Also, depending on how much custom code you will be doing, I'm willing to bet, once you see how Kentico works and how easy development is done from the UI, you will very rarely need Visual Studio to do anything. The UI is very powerful!

I'd suggest checking out the Videos section of the DevNet, Thomas Robbins has a great set of videos there for one to get a jump start. Granted they are for v6 but it will at least help to you get an idea of how things work.

Good luck!