SBR, with all respect, I believe you are the fellow who has not toured yet, Am I wrong? If so, my apologies.
If so, I bring it up to mention that while this topic is clearly always going to be tricky as it is only on paper, first of all we cant see the OP on his bike, and then there are physical condition factors etc that come into play.

that said, localized pain like that is pretty clearly a sign of a bike fit issue that is affecting a specific area, not soreness from biking all day and/or getting into shape and therefore having stronger core muscles etc.

all I can recount is getting a new bike with a shorter toptube than my other bikes, and it making a world of difference to my riding comfort. Very little weight on hands (as should be) and despite the bars being lower than the saddle (compared to my old touring bike where the two are mostly level, but more stretched out) I am more comfortable on it.

the thing with bar height is that with proper reach, even if it is lower than seat (mine is about 4cm easily) it puts one in a good position for evening out "weight distribution" of hands/bum/pedals.
Of course too, if a cyclist is a "toodler" and not pushing on pedals very easily, then of course, more weight goes to bum and hands.

lets face it, there are a myriad of factors that come into play here, but from my personal experience of having ridden my old touring bike for years and years, and then getting a shorter toptube bike and closer reach to bars (we are talking maybe 2-3 cms perhaps) even with lower bars to seat height, I am more comfortable. I am not a strong strong rider, but that said, if I ride with my wife, or kids, I find I have too much weight on butt and hands cuz I am not pedaling with my usual steady cadence and my usual "cruising" power output from my legs.

again though, I agree completely that specific area pain should be addressed. Its tricky as everyone and his dog will give different opinions and less experienced riders can find it hard to know what direction to take (or people like my wife who doesnt give any of it a second thought, but will still complain and still believes "drop bars are uncomfortable, all stretched out, sore for my back and neck"--the classic classic uninformed "rode a bike waaaaaay too big for them as a kid" comment.

good luck OP, at least with modern bikes it is so much easier to change handle bar stems to shorter, longer ones.
On my old tourer, I changed the stem to a shorter one soon after I got it (1991?) but in hindsight, should have gotten a shorter one, but with threaded stems, you'd have to take the tape off bars, remove brake, screw around gettng bars through bar stem etc etc....so I left it with the one I changed and then just rode. I was younger too and put up with it.

I think a lot lot of people just put up with improper fit, are sore, get wrist issues like my wife with a straight bar bike, then dont ride much "cuz its uncomfortable", or ride with pain etc etc etc.