Tell you what. If I were in your shoes, but for a weekly in town local hammerfest, I'd research assist bikes in general and look for more "cross country" or hardtail variants. Especially if you are riding mostly pavement.
I also get the importance of childhood. My Torker is off limits.
I get the cheating issue of these ebikes. I've got some local establishments I go to- and ride to- just to burn off some calories and make the night an adventure. Perhaps the short rides makes a regular beer turn into a light beer. At any rate, there was some dude riding a ridiculous e-bike with small wheels ( 20 inch? 16 inch?) ) the other day at 30+ mph straggling all over the road. I followed him in my car (I couldn't pass- he was all over the place). Mr. Bean couldn't have done better himself.
Later on that night, I rode a real bike to my local establishment. On way home, he "amped?" up at the top of a hill in the other direction.. We passed head on at about 40+mph combined. Loosened up after a beer or two myself, climbing a hill under my own 'real' power, I looked at him and and yelled "CHEATER" as he passed.
My David Attenborough voice kicked in.
"In nature, some are worthy. He, was not."
I wondered if he would do a u turn and track me down.
David Attenborough kicked in again:
"Doubtful"
Tonight's ride home...
I played with some settings in manual, but was not able to make the autofocus lock on the bars as intended- next time, I will manually set the focus in short to catch the bars and let the sunset happen in the distance, with the road in blur- a work in progress.