>>1831889Agreed.
I think it's purely for aesthethics. Honestly, dropbars make road bikes look nicer than flatbars in my subjective opinion, but functionally speaking, the only advantage they offer is that low position that almost no one uses. 99% of the time you see someone with dropbars, they are on the upper possition, not using the drops.
There is nothing wrong with that though. You can do whatever the fuck you want, just not lie about it. I'm not judging, just pointing out that it's simply made up bullshit that some people make to justify their choice when confronted with the questioning of people who actually ride. It would be more honest to just say "I pick dropbars because I like them looks", and nothing could be argued about that.
That being said, flatbars and their variations (risers, sweepbars, etc) with a regular shifters/brake levers setup are superior in pretty much every way to dropbars for the regular user. I remark that, for the regular user. Having a whole cockpit designed around a position that the user barely uses, it's stupid outside specific uses like racing. It's even more pointless on a grablel bike due to the surface they are meant to be riden.
Now, like I said, there is no problem with people using whatever type of bike with whatever intended purpose they decide. Nothing wrong with that. But this generates a problem for the rest of the people: the market saturates with overengineered crap like integrated shifter/brake levers due to a core reason: shallow purchases of people who barely ride.
It's just like when people use huge ass trucks for the perceived image they generate when they have no actual use for them, but they explain their choice with some shit like "I could haul 2 elephants back there buddy" when in actuallity all they carry fits on the passenger seat.
Pic related would be enough for almost everyone if it not were for the meme drivetrain.
