Those zeros in the top frame show he was standing around. Flat bar road bikes aren't quite as efficient in position as a road bike with drops, so smaller gears to compensate for that is perfectly fine, especially since most of the people who buy the bikes are new riders that likely will need them. All that blue shows the tester spent most of the time in Zone 1. The only practical difference on these bikes with mountain bike or road components is that the ones with mountain bike componentry have more gears. It comes down to a gearing difference, basically.

And because I'd use deore on a mountain bike, but I wouldn't use sora on my road bike. I would trust a deore rear derailleur more than a sora rear derailleur to shift correctly, since on mountain bikes you put stronger springs because it's a lot more critical when you shift to make the shift. Trek went with mountain bike components on its equivalent bike (trek fx). I'm really not sure why you would think mountain bike or road components at this level make any difference? It's a flat bar road bike. With its lightweight ALUXX aluminum frame, confident handling and fast-rolling 700c wheels, Escape lets you ride any road or path in comfort and style. I don't see tiagra or sora listed as the derailleurs on that. The rear derailleur is listed as 2300 level, but the picture shows a Sora.From the dash link that you posted, it says the dash has: The Giant has the following road components: flat bar shifters, brake calipers, and a Tiagra level front derailleur. To make sure that they don’t get lost in the mass of news, you can find all the important information here. Important elements of the bikes have always been the displays and control units of the motors. The Specialized models have MTB brake/shift levers, MTB linear pull brakes, and MTB derailleurs front and rear. Recently Giant and Liv presented their new models for the 2021 season.

Giant dash 3 for sale