Yeah, all that makes perfect reasonable sense. Probably why the bike store people gave me the look they did..."He seemed so normal when he came in and asked if he could bring his bike in."
But when I did the drop bar thing for my primary riding (urban commute with occasional mad hair that saw me going up and over Twin Peaks/Protrero Hill/Bernal Hill/Liberty Hill/Buena Vista Heights/Lone Mountain/Mt Davidson on the way home (not all in one go)), I found my hands never on the lower part, pretty much always on the top, and only moving out the ends when I needed to brake, which is too often but I like not getting creamed by cars, so I stop. Switching to a flat bar with bar ends made the brakes more accessible without having to change hand position, gave me a slightly higher up riding stance which is good for seeing above/around cars, and the bar ends were nice so I could stretch out some on the flats when I could time the lights.
On the rare rides north of the GG Bridge, yeah, the wind made me long for the lower profile drop bars afford, not that the mt bike frame was helping much either.
Anyway, the important thing is to thank everyone for their own thoughts/experiences with bicycles as it provides a much more rounded thinking process for me.