Originally Posted by Giant Doofus

I know you've already done a lot of looking, but to me it sounds like you may need to keep looking. For your riding patterns, the Quick sounds better, but ideally you could find something like that with swept back bars and a more comfortable saddle. On the other hand, these are both things you could swap out pretty easily. How is your current saddle? Could you put it on the new bike? Could the LBS swap the bars for you? Another cheap option would be to add bar ends.

On the front suspension fork: like @Who Dey3334, I ride a Giant Cypress DX that has a front suspension fork, but I don't find the critique of the fork to be BS. I've taken the bike on metric centuries, so it can definitely go the distance, and I like the bike a lot. Having said that, though, I would also say that I wish it did not have the suspension fork. I do think it requires more effort to go the same speed than a bike with similar geometry and a rigid fork. It may absorb some bumps, but it also absorbs effort. It just sort of feels a little mushy. My older hybrid had a rigid fork, and I liked that a lot better. It didn't feel any rougher to me.

Good luck!