It’s sounds like you know what you want and need but chiming in on the disc brake thing. A few years back I had a Trek DS 8.4 with the hydro disk brakes and they were in my opinion the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Before the DS I had a regular road bike with rim brakes and a MTB with XT brakes. I’m a heavier rider, 225ish and the road bikes brakes on hills were less than inspiring. The MTB on the other hand could toss you over the bars if you have them a strong pull. But I have arthritis and my hands hurt and don’t have the grip I used to have and the hydro disks were so easy to modulate and took less effort.

My current bike bike has mechanical disks and while they work well I’ll get hydros again next time around.