Commerce kickstart 2 creating custom front page I subthemed the original kickstart 2 commerce site and everything works fine. I also understand the CSS structure and how to regulate that. 

What I'm trying to understand is how the frontpage works and how to change the structure. It looks like the frontpage is created of blocks so I can change what shows or doesn't show on frontpage via Site settings -> Blocks.

However, how could I add lets say a custom div with h1 heading and few paragraphs to it?

This can be easily created with adding a new basic page, where you can use full html in body and style the page to your liking. How does this work with a front page?

If I create a basic page with the paragraph "Welcome to the website" that I want to use on the front page, and then display it in a main content block, what bothers me is that it renders Read more button. Which I don't want.

Where can I do that for frontapge then?
I suppose you could create a custom block at admin/structure/block/add.
It comes with body field and after creating the block you can assign it to "content" region and set it to show up only on .

You have the possibility to create new regions in theme.info file and render them only in page--front.tpl.php.

I think these are the clean ways to do it, and don't require much coding.