Cross-Check all the way, baby.

1) Pacer only has a single eyelet in the back, so if you want to run rear fenders *and* a rear rack (you said you'd be doing light touring, and you live in a rainy climate), you're better off with the eyelets for both. Yes, there are alternative ways to achieve this with only one set of eyelets, but the Cross-Check's double eyelets gives you the easiest installation options.

2) Cross-Check has clearance for tire sizes up to 700x45 WITH fenders. Pacer only goes up to 700x28 with fenders. You might want wider tires for touring.

3) As others mentioned, Cross-Check is SUPER flexible as far as what kind of drive-train you can run, thanks to the semi-horizontal dropouts and 132.5 mm rear spacing. Everything from fixed gear to mountain or road triple front chainrings. Pacer has vertical dropouts, so you're never going to be able to go into the fixed or singlespeed mode without either dropping some serious coin on an eccentric rear hub or fiddling around to find the magic combination of front and rear rings that gives you a good chainline.

The one place that the Pacer has the Cross-Check beat for sure is weight, but according to Surly's website, the weight difference between the two framsets is pretty small: cross-check with uncut fork is 0.22 kg (about 0.5 lbs) heavier than pacer with uncut fork. Depending on your own weight, that may or not make a difference to you.

I bought the "Cross-Check Complete" pre-built bike, and if I knew then what I know now, I might have gone with the frameset option and gotten better control over my setup. But for someone who wants a super-flexible bike with decent components, I think the complete bike works just fine. I added SKS fenders and a Jandd rear rack and it's a fabulous commuter/all-around bike. If I was going to tour with it, I'd have to do some reconfiguration of the drivetrain, because the gearing does not go low enough. But all that's easy enough to figure out later.

Have fun!