I have a CrossRip+ which I bought used from another member here who moved on to a Turbo Creo SL. I've had a great time with it (1800 miles 6 months), because it's so flexible. I've used it as a road bike, a grocery getter, as a gravel bike, etc. Oddly, I mostly got it because I wanted to do multi-day tours, but due to COVID, that's the one thing I haven't done on it. My take is that Trek put a lot of thought into the design and execution. For instance, it has drop bars, but it's set up in such a way that you can ride the brake hoods, something that's reasonably close to flat bar position, and still use the brakes wihtout having to move your hands. Basically, it's a really good bike that simply didn't sell well. I suspect that only offering it in black didn't help. I also think that marketing the thing as a long distance commuter meant it was competing with Trek's own Alliants. Knobbier tires and they could have easily promoted the Crossrip+ as an E-gravel bike. My take is that Trek had the Alliants with the Bosch Gen4 motors and internal battery and the Domane as an e-road bike, so the Crossrip+ wound up as the odd model out, because it was right in between the two and I suspect had lower profit margins. I do think the e-road bike trend has been to bikes that trade off weight for less power and smaller batteries. It makes sense on the road, especially for group rides where e-bikes are analogous to Viagra (it's more fun when you can hide the fact that you need it). I'm not as sure that it makes sense for gravel, for loaded touring, or roads like the Blue Ridge parkway (mostly hills). On those occasions, I'm glad I have a 500 wh battery and 60+ Newton Meters of Torque. Bottom line, at least for me, it's part of what makes it so versatile. In the meantime, you might find a pretty similar mix of attributes with the Yamaha Civante.