Originally Posted by Sunsanvil

Sounds like you are well versed in the state of things right now and have a good eye for what you want.

As to your height/weight, that souldnt be too much of a consideration. The larger DS, CrossTrail, CX, Roam (to name just a few) should fit you and while manufacturers never disclose the details, they are supposed to use heavier springs in the larger sizes in anticipation of heavier riders. Whether they do or not is of course another matter.

The quality of the forks on the kilobuck bikes is not horrible, but they arnt top shelf by any stretch. Keep in mind that at that same price point what you find on the "real" mountain bikes are cut from the exact same cloth, just with 40mm more of travel (look at the little warning sticker about them being for "leisure cross-country only").

At the $1400 ish price point you start to find the better stuff, in particular 29ers with air sprung forks which can be dialed into to your specific weight, but as you said you are going to find the posture to be far more "race" and less the more upright "fitness". One exception might be the Crave from Specialized. They claim to have made a 29er with a more casual geometry. Short of that making a mountain bike ride like a fitness bike is a matter of being fitted to a size without too long a reach and swapping out the stem for one with a high rise. Saddle might be a consideration as well.

Other option is to get a hybrid and either up front or down the road swap the fork out with one of the brand new aftermarket units which are only just now coming to market like the RockShox Paragon.