Darth Lefty 

The thing making the weight on most rowdy-looking hybrids is the Suntour suspension fork, which weighs six pounds compared to three for a rigid chromoly fork. Beyond that the things making them heavy are the same as ever. Thickest possible rims and tires, overbuilt metal frame, lower end components with more painted steel and less forged aluminum... you know the drill.

In that light the Sirrus X's with their little handlebar shock look pretty good. Specialized also has a flat bar Diverge model that's a step up from those, but it comes with a stupid little 2-inch dropper post.

You could also consider building up a city bike from a versatile XC or trail MTB frame. There are several right now with adjustable or swappable rear dropouts. That gives you so many more immediately better options and fewer compromises than a hybrid with a MTB look. Every piece is what you want, for whatever reason. XC fork or carbon fork, gear drive or 1x or sometimes even a belt. If you want a dropper you can get one full size, the 27.2 posts you can put in a hybrid are all limited to 100mm. I probably would not do this myself because it blows up the budget... but I'd like to.