Though I do not own either of these bikes, I have owned similar bikes over the years, so take my advice FWIW. Generally, unless you are purposely moving from a more sporty bike to a less sporty bike (say because of a chronic injury) , my view is if you are just getting started with riding and one of your choices is more plush or comfort oriented, the other slightly more sporty, go with the more sporty option. That has been my experience, that as I started riding more, I grew to hate the plush features I initially liked.

Escape looks to be slightly sportier. Not exactly race worthy, but perhaps better suited to rides longer than 10 miles than the Cypress DX. Cypress has a heavy suspension fork, Escape has what looks like a carbon fiber fork. And with a 9 speed drivetrain rather than the 8 speed on the Cypress. Finally, Escape has somewhat upgraded shifters and derailleurs over the Cypress.

The fork alone accounts for a 2 lb weight difference between the two bikes. Though Giant does not list the bike weights, I would estimate the Escape is at least 4 or 5 lbs lighter than the Cypress just looking at the forks, tires, and components.

So, other things being equal, I would say the extra money spent on the Escape would be worth it, if you can swing it. The Cypress would be a fine bike for rides of 5 to maybe 10 miles total, so best for a casual rider, or a student commuting to campus, for example. While you might take the Cypress on the occasional dirt road, I would not recommend it for anything more rugged than fine gravel or packed dirt and frankly, you could just as easily ride the Escape on those surfaces, too. If you see yourself riding longer than 10 miles, I would recommend the Escape 1 or something even sportier.

Finally, don't know what you mean by making the Escape more comfortable. you can always switch out things to make the bike fit better, such as stems , handlebars, and saddles. I recommend you work with your bike shop to get this dialed in sooner rather than later. And you can somewhat change things up by switching out tires for speed, durability, or ride quality (sadly, improving one these things sometimes compromises the other two, but people do switch tires).