Great write up!!! Funny Trek and Specialized brands have mostly have been very successful marketing under powered, cheaper to make ebikes. They are marketing how light they are as well as marketing something like ~"you don't have to be afraid, no one can tell you are on an ebike" lol. Because, putting in smaller batteries and engines they can make the the frame's bottom brackets and down tubes relative smaller and save millions on higher amp hour batteries and higher powered motors.
I really like that build you have that seems to really make sense. You can train harder than they can 1- just set your assist level lower than they can verses the wghts of the bikes. But, then you can go to your levels of assist way beyond theirs to get out of bad situations. Or set your assist level setting for any wght bike you want and....much lighter than theirs at their highest assist level. Then, you can already be on your second beer when your buddy makes it to the pub after the hail storm.
That said, for each his own. Since I still ride my carbon accoustics Trek gave me when I rode for them, I can have the best of both worlds. But, I love my ebikes 
