I've seen the thread and being fairly new to the forum not poked my nose in too much
I'd say it's a combination, with the current kit an external diffused flash probably would of helped on some of the indoor shots, to be more natural I shot some with no flash and a small aperture (wide open) but again with the kit lense your limited to how far open you can get this which means less light, longer shutter speed, less keepers.
I have noticed I sometimes tend to have more 'headroom' in a shot than desired and need to work on focus lock and recomposing, this might be down to the mode setting of the camera refocusing when it moves.
Still I'm not going to be chasing new kit just yet, considering this is my first DSLR and I'm still learning to play with aperture, shutter speeds, ISO etc I don't think I did too bad
I'd say a certain degree of taking a photo is having an eye for the shot and being prepared for it, next having the kit to take the shot, depending on what kit allows you less prep time and you end up with the shot you wanted.