I should also quickly point out that my claim above for #2 and the intended use of that particular genre of bicycles (Audax/Randonneur) also supports the claim that the OPs suggestions for an urban bike are slightly misguided. In the end, I'm just psychologically interested in why Americans and Brits (and thus would assume Aussies and Kiwis) are so fascinated with drops when they are quite poor for visibility in heavily urbanised environments compared to every other country on the planet. It's probably the breakdown of the language in the end like most other things (road bike vs. rennrad/sportrad (race/sport bike.) Maybe it's the aggressive nature of English-speakers these days, where everything is a competition?