[Closed] Choosing new hardtail - help please!

Here I go, going to feel like a lemon asking this. Every time I buy a new bike I go into analysis paralysis and here I am again. At least this time there being hardly any bikes to choose from works in my favour....but still, stuck

My first "proper" mountain bike was a Kona Cinder Cone. Not remotely a high spec bike but I loved it, it was starting to fall to bits so I replaced it with a string of bikes over the years none of which I loved as much as my first love the kona. (And also, what is it about people stealing bikes?)

So I am looking for something that ideally will feel something like the cinder cone, but I just can't work out the geometries. My last two bikes felt like they were a tad too long for me so I don't know if I'm just buying them too big if I fall between sizes or whether its just totally different geometries. (Trek Superfly 7 medium and Orange 5 small, and if I remember rightly the kona was 17")

My riding aspirations have lowered somewhat since being a Mum but I would hope to be doing trail centre blues/red as well as natural trails in the woods and hills near me and also using for long gravel rides, somehow I am entered rather optimistically into the Dukes Weekender in September. I harbour secret aspirations that it could be a bike packing bike too but I can't see that happening any time soon! More critically though I will likely want to pull a trailer/have a bike seat on the back and I've just ordered a shotgun seat for the front for the little one - so prob need a more upright position to be able to see over her head!

I would ideally like it to come fitted with a dropper and decent tyres for trail use and if so would go up to £1500. If I'd have to add that myself/change tyres I wouldn't want to pay much more than £1000 as it seems like too much faff!

I had my heart set on a Sonder Frontier for all its bike packing credentials, until I realised it doesn't come in a small and I think that's what I would probably need. Currently I'm looking at a Grand Canyon 7 or 8 womens/unisex but can't even order till June so by the time I got it most of the summer would be gone! Would this be anything like my Kona feel wise, I'm feeling like the reach/head angles are kind of similar but I know need to look at bigger picture? Is there anything else similar that I could get just now?

Here's a comparison of

Kona Orange 5 GC Uni GC WMN
SIZE 17" Small Medium Medium
Tob Tube horizontal 596.9 568/595 586 586
seat tube angle 72.5 72/74 74 74
head tube angle 68.5 66 68 68.5
chainstay length 419.1 426 423 422
Front to Center 673.1
Wheelbaswe 1092.2 1156 1105 1079
Fork Length 472.44
Fork Offset 38.1
Bottom Bracket Drop -25.4 -20 47 54 (GC offset)
Bottom Bracket Height 309.88 333
Standover 769.62 715 760 740
Head Tube length 129.54 110 100 100
Bottom Bracket Size 1854.2
Front Derailleur Clamp Size 807.72
STACK 574.04 608 596 595
REACH 414.02 422 415 397

Part of me is tempted to buy a £600 bike as I've seen a couple available now and stop overthinking it, I can buy a better bike if and when I have more time to actually ride it. But then the snob part of me kicks in on the spec, and the environmental aspect of buying a bike I plan to replace seems wrong too! Does anyone have any advice on the sort of Suntour forks that are often specced on these bikes? I'm sure they are perfectly fine!