Kit lenses not terrible?

So I got this 18-55 IS 2 lens with my camera (the T3 doesn't have a body only option), and everything I read says it should be a terrible lens.

The problem is that in my testing it's hard to see what's so bad about it. It's a slow lens, but in terms of IQ it only seems a small step down from my Pancake at the same aperture, and the Pancake at f5.6 should be as clear as any other lens out there.

Did I get a dud Pancake? Or is my 18-55 IS 2 just really good? Or is this the kind of performance I should expect out of all "cheap" lenses?

If the third option is the case, I'm pretty sure I have a 85mm Samyang in my future (having a full mech lens sounds amazing).

All but one of the images are at f5.6, the odd one is f6.3 because when matching focal length between the two lenses the 18-55 IS 2 over exposes a bit.



Excuse my while I play with the forum image linking thingy.