I've found sufficient gearing and the saddle are more important to my comfort than the bike style.

IMO prices are only one of many other reasons. I doubt many people would want to ride a road bike to the post office to mail a package, esp. if it needs to be carried on a rear rack.

I commute each day all year long. My commute was about 25 km per day, now it's shorter. I often take long weekend, or afternoon rides.

The most universal IMO is a hybrid. Rigid fork, with clearance for at least 37mm tyres with mudguards. If I had to be down to one bicycle, it would be a hybrid. I can haul loads of groceries, put a child seat on it and it is still faster than a MTB (with 26" wheels especially), while being more robust than a road bike. I found it quite comfortable too. Road bike is better for longer road rides, but hybrid was OK. For really long rides, lasting several days, I see many people choosing touring, or just regular hybrid bicycles (with room for wider tyres).

As a new board member and a hybrid rider I'd like to just in....
a hybrid for me was gotten while in college as a ride that offered the most functionality (road, path, packed earth paths) for campus and around town that was durable, fit my budget, fit me (physically, being a tall and robust) and fairly comfortable....that was in 2008, I still ride it, made some mods & s**** over the years, but pretty much still the same....see no reason to get rid of it (I don't ride like I stole it)

That particular fit is pretty extreme, and partly a result of a frame that's way too small.

In general I agree with the generalization that road bikes or similar are more comfortable for longer distances than an upright bike, but "comfort" has more than one variable. If I'm riding a short distance at low speeds, more complete absorption of bumps and a smooth easy ride feels better than riding a road bike, or at least as good. Over a longer ride, the lower speed and greater effort required to get over hills becomes incredibly frustrating, and the comfort of a big saddle starts to give way a bit to chafing and the greater difficulty of unweighting over the bumps. Basically I just have a different attitude about what I'm doing on different rides, and that influences my comfort and satisfaction with what I'm riding quite a bit. Objectively speaking, my road bike is probably less comfortable than my winter hybrid in terms of shock absorption, but the road bike is still comfortable to ride 100 miles, and I don't really care that I feel more of the road when riding it. The greater fatigue I feel from riding longer distances on the hybrid feels much more uncomfortable to me than riding the road bike.

As for wrist pain and general discomfort, well... no doubt there are people riding around uncomfortably on road bikes. But there are people riding around uncomfortably on upright bikes, too. And there's just a lot of "comfort dogma" to be found out there on the internet that makes sweeping assertions about what is and is not comfortable. The high-handlebar position promoted by Rivendell springs to mind. They insist that higher handlebars are more comfortable, period. The logical corollary of this idea is that anyone riding around with a lower, aerodynamic position is depriving themselves of comfort in the name of speed. I bought into this idea for a while, until I started experimenting a bit more and discovered that having my handlebars lower than the saddle on almost any road bike or road-like bike was much more pleasant for me. Even on a touring bike - I flipped the stem over on my Surly Long Haul Trucker, and that bike was transformed from an awkward, unwieldy tank that strained my shoulders to a smooth-handling, comfy and steady cruiser of a bike. Still a tank, but a fun tank. Dropping the handlebars 2-3 cm was all it took.

In conclusion, whether a hybrid is more or less comfortable depends upon what you want to do with it, your attitude about that, and about how that hybrid was designed. One reason my LHT became a lot more pleasant is that typical mid to high trail road and touring geometry (which encompasses everything from road-based hybrids to road and touring bikes) makes for a bike that handles better with more weight on the front wheel. If the geometry of a bike favors a weighted front wheel or a less-weighted front wheel, distributing your weight differently will have some consequences. If a bike is set up for riding short distances in comfort, it will probably feel slow and awkward if you try to ride it fast. And so on and so forth.

I think one of the issues with contemporary comfort bikes is their saddles have too much padding and not enough suspension. Traditional sprung leather and mattress saddles are comfortable for long periods and eliminate the road shock problem. I tried a fixed road saddle on my world tourist, which is a road bike with northroad bars, and it was terrible.

That's a good point I'd not thought about. Most of our seats are Selle Royale and have fairly minimal padding and good springs. My Brooks has about zero padding and good springs. Those with OEM seats do seem to have much more padding.

One other major difference in proper Dutch geometry vs cruisers and pseudo-Dutch bikes is the seats are often way too far back and this is particularly bad on those advertised as flat-foot. This often results in back and knee problems (and discomfort from being pushed back on the saddle).

If you're happy with it, ride it often, and it serves your needs then there's little or no reason to change.

If this results in people riding frequently then it's working. What I've seen a lot of though is people buy a new bike and ride it a lot at first but then it increasingly hangs in the garage. Sometimes this is the hassle of loading it on the car and driving to some place to ride is more hassle than they think it's worth or more time than they can devote to it. Sometimes the hassle of changing in to riding clothes, even if just shorts instead of jeans. Their bike gets out of adjustment and is less enjoyable to ride. And on and on.

My Gazelle came with a Brooks 63, pretty good if a little narrow and underspung. I tried a moderate and a relaxed SR Resprio, both had too much padding. Then I tried a SR Because moderate, the padding was OK, but terribly underspung. Finally settled on a Lepper tour 174 mattress saddle, firm padding yet supple like a mattress saddle should be, with just the right amount of spring. It's the most comfortable saddle I've ever sat on.

as a longer legged fellow, the hybrid sitting further back and up gives me proper leg extension and works for me.
besides, I like the simple triangular geometry over the swoopy curves of a cruiser or the knife edge that a race/road bike makes me feel.