Worked for a very large Specialized dealer for a long time and dislike the "concept store" crap and up sell, up sell, up sell sales technique required of the sales staff. Happily, I no longer work for them as it just became a grind like the typical copier sales job. Even though I was good at sales and was the leader most months, it took the fun out of it. I now work for a smaller Cannondale shop and it is a pleasure to work there, if only part time during the season. Find a different shop.

As for disc brakes, they are a feature. Nothing else. On an MTB they make sense when the trails are wet. Outside of that environment they are overkill and not needed for safety. In almost 40 years of riding I have never failed to stop using rim brakes in a controlled fashion to avoid danger. Never. Closing in on 80 thousand miles and it has never been an issue. Even when mountain biking the disc brakes did not make a huge difference except when the trail was muddy.

As for maintenance, most manufacturers recommend flush and bleed annually or every 2 years. Most of the mountain bikes I have serviced that are used a lot require annual and sometimes twice a season flush and bleed. Flush and bleed is expensive. We charge 60 bucks a brake. Each manufacturer has their own way of doing this and you have to have the correct kit to do it. Pads do not last as long as rim brake pads and if contaminated by something in the environment require replacement to get them to stop chirping. Many of the bikes come with thin rotors and under hard braking conditions they warp. The better rotors are thicker and resist this more effectively.

All this and I haven't even started on the brake levers!!

Why complicate things? Rim brakes are effective, low maintenance, easy to work on, and inexpensive. They just make sense.