Somewhere I heard that most bars are too wide for most people. Maybe you should have had 42's all along?

To the point - Yes, I have raised (and changed) the stem, and, yes, it was an age and comfort thing. A new saddle this year - for some reason the 13yo saddle started bothering me something terrible, yet for 13 years it was OK. Maybe it just wore out??

Also, I find inline brakes really useful, contrary to 99% of other folks,

YMMV - in fact it SURELY will!!