funny, I think the 26" wheeled LHT makes me look 6' tall. The reason for picking a LHT is because you plan on carrying WEIGHT, not because you plan on riding x miles. The LHT would be the better choice if you plan on riding 5 miles a day or 100 if you plan on carrying lots of weight.
Your wrists aren't shot because of the aluminum frame but more likely from riding straight bars on 26mm tires. My wrists will hurt riding wide straight bars on 2.125 tires but not riding on the tops of drop bars with 28mm tires.
The basis for good load carrying isn't just heel clearance. I've got a 56cm Cross-Check that can have the rear wheel to a theoretical chainstay length of 17.5" and heel clearance but it's not anywhere as good at carrying that weight as a LHT that has larger frame tubes or other touring bikes with similar chainstay length.
If you aren't carrying lots of weight and like 700c look at other bikes than the LHT. If you like carrying weight primarily on your rear rack the LHT can't be beat.
Don't quite understand why you want to build up a bike from a frame when what you want is a complete bike and the parts you have don't appear to cross-over well and you're willing to consider a $1700 Aurora Elite.