Cannondale Topstone 3 – Will I regret not spending more?

First, some context on my bike shopping journey:

I have done A TON of research (maybe too much). I am shopping for a gravel bike. I plan to ride 70/30 road/gravel, so road ability is important to me but I want the ability to go off-road as I please and not worry about the capabilities of the bike. I currently ride a Specialized Globe hybrid bike that is way too big for me (it's size 61 and I'm a 54), so an upgrade will be awesome.

Here's a shortlist of my shopping criteria:

Price: Ideally I would stay below $2000, but if something is such good value for the money I could stretch a bit.

Frameset: I'm primarily looking at aluminum, but would upgrade to carbon if the price is right.

Components: I would like crisp shifting. A mid-tier SRAM/Shimano would probably be fine for me. The Topstone has a microSHIFT Sword groupset, and I'm not as familiar with that brand. Electronic shifting could be nice, although I'm assuming it's out of my budget unless I buy used.

Brakes: Any disc brakes would be an upgrade for me. Are hydraulic brakes really necessary? The Topstone 3 has mechanical disc brakes and they didn't feel terrible when I test rode, but I've read reviews where people claim they are terrible. I'm not sure if this is just Redditors being overcritical, or if it's objective truth.

Geometry: I want drop bars (I like the flared versions). I don't want a super aggressive geometry, but would like to be somewhat fast on the road.

Color: Perhaps a bit vain, but color is super important to me. I want to love the way my bike looks if I'm spending ~$2000. I love the Storm Cloud color that the Topstone comes in. Most brands seem to save their cool colors for the higher end models.

My Research:

The first bike I test rode was a Topstone 3 and really liked the way it felt. I know it would be a huge upgrade over my current bike. However, I am a chronic over-researcher so I went down a rabbit hole of gravel bike research. I then ended up test driving a Specialized Diverge Sport Carbon to see how a carbon frame felt. I definitely noticed how nice the Shimano GRX820 groupset felt when shifting. The Future Shock suspension was also nice, but probably not necessary. The Topstone 3 comes with a microShift Sword groupset. It felt pretty good when I first rode it, but I would need to ride it again to compare it to the GRX now that I've felt both.

I'm also considering pretty much every other brand, so any input would be super helpful. I only included details above two of the bikes I test rode, but I've been looking at the Canyon Grizl/Grail/Endurance, Trek Checkpoint/Domane, Giant Revolt, . I'm open to buying used and have been browsing Marketplace and buycycle, but haven't found anything.

I'm trying to be rational and not max out my budget just because there are bikes out there that cost more. If I loved the way the Topstone 3 felt at $1400, which is the cheapest bike I'm considering, should I be looking at anything else?