You still need to assign the correct footprint for a component in Eagle, Altium, etc.. especially for component like resistors where you could use a lot of different foot print.
Kicad is not perfect, but the footprint assotiasion is mostly filled by default by the library that come with the latest release. It's far from perfect and some component may use a non existing footprint (got that yesterday for exemple)
But the process is simple now, you don't even need to use the footprint assotiation tools as you can select the footprint by editing the component property on the Schematics, like other CAD do.
Then you just need to export the netlist, open PCBnew (there is even a menu entry in the schematic tool to open it) then read the netlist, that's all!, it's not that complexe.
And don't worry, because the footprint association is the same problem with all CAD software, unless you're happy with the default footprint it select, which is, I hope no all the times, or you may have some bad surprises.