I know you said the LHT doesn't fit your intended riding style, but personally, if I were buying a new touring bike, LHT or something else, I would go with disk brakes. No question. I know the old styles of brakes have been around forever and they do stop a bike, but ride some disks if you haven't before and you'll see that they are a huge improvement. There is a reason lots of touring bikes are showing up with them now. I only own my current touring bike(91' Trek) because I got the frame for cheap and it was cheaper for me to build up than buy new, but I'd swap to a disk fork in a second if I knew of one with the unlikely combination of requirements it would need(1" with mid-fork braze-ons).