Regarding the handlebars:
I was skeptical too at first but I have grown to like them quite a bit. I'm not concerned strength wise anymore - I have done countless 1200W sprints and written the bike on hundreds of kilometers of bumpy gravel. Actually the vertical compliance does give some subtle dampening to the ride which is nice. (I'm 88 kg for reference)
One thing that bugged me was some creaking from the headset even though it was tight. A bit of grease on the surface between the spacers solved it. Make sure to not get grease on the steerer tube