one of the points in purchasing a :43: camera was to move into RAW.
I agree. Raw rocks! Raw allows you so much latitude if you expose and compose your images properly RAW allows for so much creativity. The only down side with raw is it requires a bit more processing and a bit more storage space. This doesn't bother me because I am a frugal shooter I try to make each frame count. I shoot on average 17.4 frames a day and I do that everyday.
Aperture like Lightroom is, for lack of better words, a suite of programs. You have an organizer cataloger, a post processor, a web design, program, a publishing program, a slide show program, a printing program all rolled up into one. Once you learn interface and then learned how to use the program(s) it is deceptively easy to use. The problem is to lean it and I suggest you pay the $25 to Lynda.com and work through her tutorials on Aperture. There, maybe other tutorials but I know hers works.
You will find there is no need to shot in jpeg as Aperture creates them as you import RAW. You will learn that any changes to a raw file doesn't effect the RAW file but merely makes a small side car file.
I use Aperture about 80 - 85% of all my work. I use PhotoMatix for all HDR which is mainly 5 - 10% of my work. Finally I tweak all my images that I am going to exhibit in Photoshop but For the most part I could use Adobe Elements.
There are other programs I use for specific projects but Aperture is my main touch stone.
The things you give up with moving from jpg is the presets that Panasonic has given you in camera but frankly they are very restrictive and you can easily use the presets in Aperture, or import new ones or even create your own. To sum up start using RAW it won't take much time to get use to it and it will free your creativity.