Glad I'm not the only one that hates low bottom brackets!

Well, hydralics are really really nice and self adjusting. I wouldn't by a nice gravel bike without it. Its a better improvement than going to disks IMHO.

Bikes direct tends to use Fuji designs for their bikes. Check them out for an alternative when you know what you want. I have a BD Fantom Cross bike that was pretty similar to what Performance offered with Fuji, just with better components.