Trying to compare a road bike to a hybrid is like trying to compare a Formula 1 car to a performance crossover vehicle or a sports car. They are two totally different kinds of bikes.
A performance bike like a Madone 6.9 or Specialized Tarmac is like a Formula 1 car. They are designed to be UCI conformant (the formula) for racing. Both are carbon fiber moncouque.
A endurance bike like a Specialized Roubaix or Giant Defy is like a car designed for the 24 hours at LeMans. Both built within a specified formula and both are carbon fiber moncouque.
A hybrid is like a performance crossover vehicle, you get great performance and you can carry your groceries home with it if you want to.
Hybrids are handy. You can still use clipless MTB pedals which means you don't have to walk around like a duck like you do with road shoes or if you don't want to, you can stick to platform pedals and wear whatever you feel like. They're great bikes for casual use which means there's no need for bike shorts. Keep riding a road bike without padded bike shorts for any distance and you
will be walking funny in more ways than one.
On the road its more than capable of staying with road bikes its just up in the hills it loses out, it handles road irregularity's far better I've left roadies for dead on city link pathways because they just dont have the bike control and are to worried about damaging there bikes.
The bike control issue with road bikes on rough pathways and roads is because of the short wheelbase and the stiffness of the bike. A crit bike with the short wheelbase would shake anybody to death on a rough road and probably cause some riders to crash on a really rough stretch . I ride an endurance road bike that is designed for racing on cobblestones and I've found the handling to be a lot better than my hybrid. If I were riding something built for crits then I can see where I could have control issues on a rough road. Don't think that roadies are afraid of damaging the bike, it's the wheels. Carbon fiber frames are very, very strong. Roadies have to be more aware of potholes. That doesn't mean to say that hybrid wheels and mountain bike wheels are bulletproof. They're not. I can show you a mountain bike rim that got bent totally out of round by a pothole.
I've passed my share of roadies on my hybrid as well but for the most part roadies really don't care. They're not interested in outrunning a hybrid when they're on a 100k training ride. They usually have specific objectives when they are riding and what you happen to be doing is no big deal to them. On the other hand, challenge a roadie on the street and you'll be seeing his/her back very quickly.
As for hill climbing ? It's no contest, I'll take my road bike anyday. I'm not a masher but a spinner when it comes to climbing hills unless it's something really steep and I'll have a lot more left in the tank on my road bike with a compact double than I do on my hybrid with a compact triple as well as tremendous acceleration once I'm at the top of the hill.
When it comes to comfort, I don't have any serious issues with either bike except that I find that I have issues with my hands going numb on the hybrid. I've got to move my hands around constantly on any flatbar bike, MTB's included to prevent that. Roadbikes have never given me problems. Most people seem to think that roadbikes are uncomfortable which is a complete myth. I'm 57 and I have no problems with riding in the drops on the road bike. The geometry of my road bike isn't as agressive as something like a crit bike but not quite as relaxed as my hybird and it's very comfortable. When you consider how much time pro riders spend in the saddle day after day, week after week, you'll find that the biggest deciding factor to the comfort on a road bike is the fit. Some stages in the Tour de France can result in a rider spending well over 6 hours in the saddle and that's only one race over a very long season.
When you buy a road bike, you pay for a good professional fitting, a good bike fitting is absolutely essential. That's not to say that a hybrid is more forgiving but if you have any comfort issues on any kind of bike, then
get it fitted to you.
The wide tires of a hybrid will give you a softer ride and you have more options . If you've something like 700x35 you can go narrow for pavement like 700x28 or wider if you want to ride more on dirt. Most road bikes won't give you that option. My road bike is on 700x23's and I can go to 700x25 but probably not much wider than that.
Hybrids were designed to be versatile and they do a lot of things pretty well. You can attach fenders, you can put carriers on them, you can do all sorts of things with them. Whether it's suitable for you depends on what you want to do but I prefer to have both kinds of bike.
The hybrid is like a family crossover, my Roubaix is more like a GT prototype for Le Mans.