No LBS relationship, no established warrantee system, strange builds that lead to "upgrade-itis" for some. It's not just a name brand pride thing, if I'm not buying used, I would pay a bit extra to have a relationship with my local bike shop on that bike.
But yeah, just get any disk compatible bike, and inline levers, if you get the bike from a shop they'd likely install them for only the price of the levers, and even if you get something else it's something you can do yourself, not even any need for new housing or cables, you just need four extra ferrules. The built in cable adjusters on inline levers make disk brake set-up a cinch.