Thanks for the advice guys. I'll have to check in to see what tools are required to assemble a BD bike. I may go that route for a better bike, or at least a more upgradeable platform.
To be honest, the shop offering to check over the whole bike made the SE very tempting and is what prompted the question in the first place. All else equal pretty much anything from BD is probably better then the SE, but once you throw in the service I figured that gap would've closed.
I'm starting to think that cheap bikes are too much trouble. My road bike was a no-brainer in comparison.