specifically for moniemoe, this is a real concern. My wife is 5'1" also, and for her first ever drop bar bike I researched for her a few years ago, I very much kept this in mind. Over the years, I've had women friends who have bikes that were clearly too big for them, even with me doing stem changes, and not being regular bikers, didnt know better but unfortunately ended up not riding much because of the discomfort.

Of course reach and proper fit is important for anyone, but from my experience, shorter women with possibly shorter torsos pecentage wise, can end up on frames with just a bit too much reach, which we all know makes a real difference in riding comfort.
Diff frames too will have the bars at diff heights in relation to the seat, and moniemoe specifically said she likes a more upright position, so the headtube placement is pretty important here, not to mention overall "reach" of seat to bars distance, which can limit the stems and the angle of stems--ie, too long a toptube may restrict an angled stem to allow bars to be at a comfortable height. I realize that the Trolls uncut fork tube is a big plus here, allowing more flexibility in bar height. The other bike probably has this also, but its a factor to consider to be sure of this, along with general top tube length and all that.
I suspect as the Troll is designed more as a flat bar bike, the headtube height thing is always going to be ok, so the toptube length seems to me to be the distance to be aware of, and compare to her drop bar bike which works well for her.

re bar height, my Tricross has a slight bar drop from seat, a couple of cm probably, and this works great for me for multi day riding on pavement. Considering an "expedition" bike with riding probably a lot more on rough roads, I figure slightly higher bar position would be better--and so an uncut and generally higher headtube will allow for playing with various stacks of spacers to find the good height one likes.

re removing fenders, I usually ride about 5000km per year, and get a flat or two per year between my two bikes, but I figure extra fender space is worth it in case one hits an area with all kinds of thorns or something that you usually never encounter. Again, just thinking of all sorts of scenarios you might run into in diff areas than usual.