Congrats, and welcome to the forums. I agree that BD offers an excellent value to those who can do the setup, and have purchased two bikes from them with good experiences in both cases. That bike looks like a great value for the money, and an excellent commuter.
I disagree with your observations on discs, but no worries, to each their own. I do think that the cheapie cable discs that come on most premade bikes (BB7's excepted) are no better (I think they are far worse) than good quality rim brakes.