My road bike is 53cm and my tripster is 51cm. The shop I bought the tripster frame from said it’s usual to size down on your usual road bike size.
Road bike is a canyon ultimate slx so racey-ish geometry – I run the stem on it with no spacers.
I’ve got a few spacers under the stem on the tripster to bring the front up a bit (maybe 2cm?) and am very happy with how it handles. I may even remove some spacers to make it a bit lower.
I know very little about bike geometry, but I do know that I *love* the way my tripster handles off road.
EDIT – oh yeah, and I think having flared drops make a big difference. They might figure in your geometry thoughts.