It seems that you and I pedal very differently. I live in Coastal Carolina, where the terrain is incredibly flat, yet I routinely start off in my lowest gear to get the trike moving, and then move progressively to higher gears until I'm going at a comfortable pace. I shift gears often, just as I did when riding non electric two wheeled bikes. (Incidentally, I rarely, if ever, used to stand on my pedals.) I find that mashing at low rpm and high effort depletes my muscles more quickly than higher rpm and lower effort.

With a torque based assist, I can pedal with a weak or strong effort, but if I slack off to "ghost" pedaling, the motor will cut out. Since my goal is to gain endurance, rather than build peak muscle strength, I change gears to gain speed while I maintain a relatively constant effort. I've been working harder for the past couple of months and my average speed has increased measurably. However, the battery doesn't last for as many miles as it used to when I pedaled with lighter effort. As long as I put more effort in, the motor also seemed to match my increase in effort. But again, I'm shifting a good bit. I round a curve and get a strong burst of headwind, and I downshift one gear to keep the same rpm and pedaling effort, even though I may slow 1 mph or more.

And although I have "bone on bone" in one hip and walking is a painful chore, pedaling with my light effort methodology is not uncomfortable in the slightest. I regularly ride 42 miles, and 50-60 milers are not uncommon.