Advice on a new commuter frame? Kona Sutra?

I recently moved and now commute via bike to work every day. I’ve never lived within biking distance to work so I’m really beginning to enjoy it! I dabble in all disciplines of cycling (mountain, road, gravel, etc…). I built an early 2010’s trek into a gravel bike which I have been using to commute. It’s an XL Trek 4500 mountain bike frame. I repainted it, put on a rigid carbon fork, sram Apex 1 drivetrain and hydraulic disc brakes, alexboondocks gravel wheels and tires, it has a dropper post, flared drop bars, and I absolutely love it. My dilemma is now that I ride it every day, I’m wondering if there’s a better frame option. The XL Trek frame is just barley too big for me with the current setup. The dropper at max low is still too high when up and with 700c wheels, the bike feels too tall for me. I’m 5’11” (6’ on a good day) tall. I’m interested in hearing some suggestions for frames that I could swap my parts on to that will have some better geometry. I’ve been looking for a 54 Kona Sutra frame, but I want to do my research before making a decision. I’m okay with steel or aluminum, but on a budget that wouldn’t allow for carbon or Ti. (Cheaper the better)

I want a frame that has mounts for things like my rear rack and bags, it needs to fit 700×40 tires. I’d ideally want to be able to run fenders as well. The current frame doesn’t have enough clearance in the rear to attach normal fenders. Needs to be disc brake compatible. It would also be cool to have internal dropper routing so I could get rid of my external one that I hit my leg on sometimes. Depending on how I set it up, I’d consider selling my road bike if this bike ends up being comfortable for ~30 mile rides. Typical days it would see ~5 miles a day.

Thanks in advanced for any advice!

by sk8klown88