I am with you all the way in terms of keeping it simple.
I've never quite understood the Stefan-bashing by some folks here, I do really enjoy his ride reports and other posts. Some of my friends have a tendency to be a bit... er, didactic, and are far more garrulous than he is! Maybe it's because part of my family is Czech? Some ancient relative told me once that if you go back far enough, there's a convergence of two branches-- our branch, with the last three letters of our last name "sky" and the Polish branch, who have the same first five letters, but ending in "ski." Anyway, our older relatives were extremely cantankerous, opinionated, etc., so maybe I'm just used to it or something!
I totally agree with you, Pedal, about Strava-- I've tried to use it again recently, and it's opaque in a way that I actually think is vicious and controlling. I hate software that is deliberately obfuscatory, that requires you to be a savant in their own inane and horribly inefficient UI-- like Microsoft Word, ProTools, or most Electronic Health Records. I am beyond resentful about that-- I don't just want them put out of business, I don't just want my money and time reimbursed, I actually want revenge.
I also think you are on to something in that using apps like Strava absolutely takes your head out of the game. You can't be on both sides of your brain at once except when you're young, and even then, when it's possible, it isn't cognitively healthy. I can't prove that, not a medical opinion of course, just a hunch.
* * * *
I am just so lucky that I found this place, and so grateful... and this forum is that rare example when indulging my OCD, rabbit-holing with search queries, asking endless annoying questions of members here-- when all of that had a fantastic outcome, instead of leaving me miserable and frustrated, which is the usual result of any kind of online shopping.
Because I love my underpowered eMTB (46 pounds after mods). I spent months researching it-- and Motobecane is pretty obscure-- and the few other obscure options in the same price and weight range. Lightweight, efficiently designed, reasonably priced, commercially made bikes with quality components from reliable manufacturers are fiendishly hard to find. If you search this forum for lightweight bikes, you'll find that often means up to 52 pounds that cost over 10 grand. But, mostly thanks to advice from some of the long-timers here, I found a really good fit.
It is
perfect for where I ride and what I want to do, which is get a tremendous workout and go places I couldn't go on an acoustic bike. It is light enough to be carried up a short flight of stairs-- albeit somewhat painfully, as I am now a senior citizen-- but heavy enough to be stable (as y'all were noting upthread), and feels like a motorcycle when descending (pavement) at over 40 MPH. (To hell with smoking Vados-- I passed a BMW today, downhill on a canyon road, of course.)
What this means, in an urban area like Los Angeles, is I'm riding in places where very few other people ride. Either their bikes are too heavy to lift over the (few, but annoying) obstacles to get to the trail, or they are probably so light that people wouldn't ride them, say, over paving stones that stick up an inch or two from the trail.
Of course, I know that Pedal could probably build something with greater range, just a bit more power, and enough suspension to manage the hardest rails I ride, which are really not that hard in the larger scheme of things -- intermediate to advanced per eMTB project, but nothing compared to actual 'advanced' trails. And Pedal will be hearing from me in a few years, when I need to mod this bike more heavily or start over from scratch.
View attachment 150248
But for now? Super happy. Nice 12-mile ride today up to the sign and then down to the reservoir, then winding through the canyons home.
"I'm all about that torque, that torque; Hills? no trouble!..." 
