>>1817611To your questions, yes, in that picture with the mountain bike, that big black cog is the low gear. Another option is to install smaller chainrings in the front. Sticking with the same brand, here's two bikes of the same type that come with triple cranksets to give lower gearing. This Alight model with disc brakes would be even better for you since you live somewhere hilly:
https://www.liv-cycling.com/us/alight-disc-3--step-through-https://www.liv-cycling.com/us/flourish-fs-1-20211 And as previous anon said, the material isn't the important thing here when it comes to frame flex - a step thru frame will always be less rigid than a diamond frame simply because of the geometry; that dropped top tube isn't as effectively triangulated with the rest of the frame.
>>1817675There's a whole category of side-loading bottle cages that will solve your problem.
