My gravel bike has Campagnolo Ekar 1x13, my mountain bike is a 1x11 XT equipped mountain bike, my main commuter is 1x14 (Rohloff) my hybrid is a 1x9 with XT/XTR, my fixed gear road bike is Sugino 75 EAI Gold Medal, My Vado is a 1x12 GX AXS, my fat bike is 1x14 (Rohloff again). Nothing "chepoe" about any of that and all 1x. People took their triples and sat in the middle gear and the industry realized this (though there have historically been 1x drivetrains for decades and decades before this) and just went to a larger cassette in the back for the same range without all the faff few people were using.

There are certainly "cheapoe" bike with all sorts of drivetrains and Trek does sell them amongst tons of others but 1x is not always "cheapoe" stuff and honestly when looking at a lower initial cost bike going 1x makes more sense, the fewer features the better the bike can be for the given price or the less expensive it can be. The more stuff you add the quality goes down or the price goes up.

Front suspension is heavy and clunky for a hybrid and usually "cheapoe" in fact I have yet to see a suspension fork for a hybrid that wasn't "cheapoe" there is some great stuff for gravel and mountain bikes and certainly suspension add-ons like the Kinekt Stem or Specialized's FutureShock but I have yet to see on any hybrid a quality suspension fork. They could make one but nobody would want to buy it and honestly wider tires will give you a better ride at way less weight and faff than skinny tires with a heavy clunky fork that barely has any travel and has no adjustment. I am so glad the industry has for the most part moved away from those except on the bottom end mountain bikes.

The current Dual Sport listed on their website under the title you gave (which is archived) looks like a decent for, Trek, low cost hybrid nice wide tires a decent enough groupset. Nothing great but would be a solid entry level set up for someone that would last for years.