Yes, something magical happens after 10 days to 2 weeks when your ”touring legs” kick in 😊
I ride in the drops in headwinds, or when really bombing along for fun. I think I can put out more power in the drops than on the hoods with bent arms as mentioned above.
...
Those of us that are lucky enough to be able to tour longer than a week or two get that benefit. Before I retired, my trips were limited to a week long.
I find that the drops are much more comfortable to maintain for long periods when I do not have much fat in my mid-section area, and I find that I steadily lose some of that fat in the early weeks of a bike tour. I think that is part of the reason that I find using the drops on a tour to be reasonably comfortable.
In this photo, my hands are on my hoods, not the drops. But from this angle it looks like I am more upright than I actually am. Then ended up being a 14 hour day from start to finish. Fortunately minimal wind that day.
The tops of my handlebars are at about the same height of the top of my saddle, or maybe up to 10mm lower. But I do run short stems for touring, so the bike is setup without a lot of reach.