I think the first thing to sort out is what you need from the bike and stick to that--you need a reference point to work from as you are considering everything from fast 1x road bikes to larger-tire gravel/adventure bikes (though you may be settling on just plain road bikes now?). You're in SoCal, so there should be plenty of bike shops with new bikes (in various categories) to at least test ride. Put the aesthetics to the side, component level to the side, and try and test out things in your general price range, from the bike categories you're entertaining. Maybe your preconceived notions and wants will be affirmed, or maybe what you thought you liked or wanted or needed is something pretty different/unexpected. Address the core of the issue, and things will fall into place from there. We can guess here all we want, looking at apples, staplers, and buckets for comparison, and get nowhere. Test ride test ride test ride!