I've not ridden many of the range - I have an Ironwood (8" travel both ends), and fantastic it is too.
It weighs the same as my old Giant AC, but has 2" more travel either end and would whup the Giant's ass up a climb, and back down. The angles do make a massive difference. Go and test ride one on some proper terrain. It's the only way.
Technical hitches. It's complicated. There's no way around it, there are a lot of hoses and connections to watch out for and make space for, making sure they don't pinch or get tight when the bars turn.
Also, think about buying in spares of the custom parts (within reason) as there's not much chance of finding them out and about. I blew the shock on my Ironwood in the Alps on day 2 of a week, no chance of getting spare parts for them, even though the internals are quite similar to Fox, and there was a ex pro-team mechanic on hand. I ended up having to bodge the bike with a huge Fox Vanilla Coil shock
(Thanks to Evasion Sports, Les Gets)