You do not need to worry too much about components. In the price range you are talking about, in a new bike, you are going to get an aluminum frame with low end components no matter what bike you buy.
That said, that is not a bad thing. The low end components today are better than the high end components of yesteryear, and all function quite nicely. The idea here is to get you out riding on a functional bike...as time goes by and you decide you really do enjoy road bike riding, and you get experience and "feel" then you will want another bike and will be able to appreciate what the higher end components give you. You get the negative opinions on BD and box store bikes on this forum because to begin with you are talking to bike "nuts", folks with a passion for what they do, they would not be happy with the bikes you are talking about for themselves and they just assume you would not be either. Get the bike in your size range that looks good to you, go ride the crap out of it and see where it goes from there.