I noticed that Kies have been improving too. I even use it to do my contacts now. I hate it that Google puts all my google contacts in MY CONTACTS group of google and I can't get it to be removed through the phone or through the web. Using Kies, I can actually remove it from that group as long as I make sure contact is in another group.
Just don't do too many contacts at once since it might have a problem updating and you have to do all over again. Do something like 10 or 20 then sync to phone.
That said, I never really had too much problem getting Kies to recognize my phone. First time I used, updates was too slow and liable to stop in the middle. The last couple was quick and smooth.