I imagine that you changed out the fork for a disc specific one? Necessary as non disc forks are not designed for the one side forces of disc brakes. How much do you think you spent on doing these changes? I ask because one would think it would be more cost effective to find a used disc bike that fits you well, and would have newer stuff in general all in all, take wider tires etc.
Yes I had a custom fork made using Reynolds 631 disc blades. The custom fork was necessary due to the limitation that the head tube could only accommodate a 1" steerer. I think you are absolutely correct about the cost equation. If the OP can find something second hand they are happy with, then you could do a more cost effective upgrade. It wasn’t something I wanted to consider, not because it isn’t a good practical idea though!
I looked at a few options with new bikes:
Curve GXR Steel
Norco Search XR Steel
Ribble CGR 725
Fairlight Farran
Shand Stoater
In reality these were all light tourers but I felt they were closer to what I liked about my existing bike. The first two I could get in Australia (as long as there was stock….) the others I would have had to order from the UK. Cost wise the local options would have been a little cheaper but I figured I’m still spending a lot so I might as well get what I want as I will be riding it for a long time.
You are also correct about tyre size. Mine only takes 38mm maximum and I admit I did pause a bit to think about that, but in the end I have a very versatile hardtail that handles the rough stuff.
In the end I went in part with emotion to re-use the old frame, and part because of how much I liked the ride and handling. It has Reynolds 853 in the main triangle which is a little unusual. As for newer stuff, after the upgrade it has a full GRX800 groupset and some nice hand-built wheels fitted to 12mm thru axle drop outs. The only relic is the 1” steerer…..