I'm building up a new hybrid/comfort frame as a flat-bar "performance gravel" bike which will admittedly not see actual gravel (unless I travel to a far-away venue) but it's for the hilly area and bad roads here in SW Ohio. I have the frame and a few bits for it but that's it. As being "old-school" the purpose if this project is to educate myself in newer stuff like disc brakes, tubeless tires, etc.
Anyway I want to get a disc brake fork for it and run a front disc brake setup but my question is will a mechanical disc brake be good enough and still better than a rim brake? I'm looking at just getting an Avid mech. disc and I'm sure hydralic would be better but is that more expensive? I'm trying to work on a strict budget as not to raise the ire of my significant other. I'm also looking for simplicity and not getting things too complicated to install and maintain.
Sorry I know this is a dumb question and this subject has probably been beaten to death but I know nothing about bicycle disc brakes except what I briefly read about here on BF and other places (after a long absence from BF). My only experience with disc brakes is when I rode a high-end Litespeed in the parking lot back in the nineties when I was a shop rat and a Surly Karate Monkey in the early-2,000s but that was just around the block.