Nonsense, the challenges of steering and getting through tight spots and the feel of navigating over obstacles is HUGE fun. Just skip the 12 foot drops and the ladder bridges that take you 12 feet above scrub with jagged stumps....
Will this be a cross country racy style of riding? Down your way I gather the trails are relatively smooth desert like stuff for the most part. In that case something more of a cross country riding position that lets you easily crunch up the hills will be a big benifit. And things like anti bob and shock lockouts may be worth looking at. On the other hand if you're looking at a lot more of the downhill "surfing" then something much more slack angled and with a much shorter cockpit sizing that let's you shift your weight literally back over the rear wheel will be more in tune.
Either way I can confirm your desire to go full suspension. I've done it both ways and my own findings are that I'll take a full suspension bike over a 5 to 7 lb lighter hard tail any day of the week IF the trails are rough. If the uphills have multiple rock steps in them then the full suspension lets you just pedal and the bike floats over the steps. On the hardtail you need to unload the rear for each step and that just adds to the workload. If it's more smooth rolling dirt uphills then a hardtail will have the advantage.
If it's as important to go up as to come down something like the Trek Fuel or equivalent would be a nice choice. And remember that you'll want to spend more for a full suspension than for a hardtail to ensure you get equivalent quality.
Around here it's more about the downhilling so I've got one of the old Norco VPS3 monocoque framed bikes. I CAN go up hills with it but it's not set up well for it. But it makes me feel like some sort of superman coming down with the way it just floats and soaks up the little 1 and 2 foot jumps I'm willing to risk.