With the shifters, it isn't exactly that the bar-end ones are a pain to use, it's just that brifters (STI?) are so much easier. I don't know about y'all, but I shift a lot. I like to be in the right gear for conditions. I hardly ever have my hands down on the lower part of the drop bars. My knees hit my belly if I ride like that, hehehe. So I only do it if a headwind is killing me. That means every time I want to shift, I'd have to change my grip. It's worth thinking about.

As someone else pointed out, brifters don't cost more if you get them with the bike, but since they're higher end components, they cost a lot more if purchased separately. (unless you buy from ebay in the dead of winter)

One other concern I had with the brifters is that I couldn't shift multiple gears at a time. But I can. I have the Shimano Tiagra, and they will downshift two gears at a time, and upshift one. I hardly ever need to upshift more than one gear at a time. When I do, I can just shift the chainring instead of the cassette. Unless you spend more time at the bottom of your bar, hunched over, you should go with something that has the brifters.

Back in the day, shifters were on the diagonal downtube. (don't know what it's called officially) Back then, no one complained. It wasn't a pain. But you also don't see people voluntarily going back to it. (except vintage guys)

I think Surly chose those colors to purposely make the bike look cheap & grungy, so it would not be so tempting to thieves and thus make a better urban bike. Ditto with the brand & model stickers wearing off easily. If it looks beat up, it is probably less apt to get stolen than a shiny, racy-looing Trek or Fisher with big fancy letters. That's just my opinion. Guys who really cyclocross know it will look muddy & nasty and are not concerned about it.