Originally Posted by
marqueemoon
I dunno. I've been looking into options for fenderable road bikes which often also have the slightly longer chainstays, bigger tire clearances, taller head tube, a little more relaxed handling, etc... of an "endurance bike" and have come to the conclusion that the U.S. options mostly suck. The British seem to have figured out how to do it much better (well, the Lynskey Sportif looks ok).
Sabbath September

Enigma Ethos ST
Don't want fenders? Fill that generous gap under the brakes with some high quality 28-30mm tires instead. To me this type of thing is preferable to some carbon wunderbike with limited clearances that's going to look dated in 5 years.
Or go custom.
So what makes these more comfortable? The seat is still higher than the bars which is going to put you in the exact same riding position as a bike with "race geometry". A longer headtube makes no difference if the overall effect is the same riding position.