Hi Ken
When it comes to value for money and Ebikes the 2 bikes to look at are the Ribble Endurance SLe or the Orbea Gain both use the Ebikemotion X35+ system. The system is also used by other manufacturers such as Cannondale, Bianchi, Wilier etc. The limitation of the Ebikemotion system is torque output which is limited to 40 Newton metres, so it’s assistance on the steep hills rather than a goped. The advantage of the Ebikemotion system is the bikes are lighter, with the top of the Range SLe hero only weighing 10.5 kg which is awesome for a road Ebike.
I’ve tried some of the other systems such as Fazua and Bosch and they are ok whilst you have battery but when it runs out you have 15 kg of bike to lug around.
There are Ebikes which throw out up to 90 newton metres of torque, so if you’re really struggling it’s good for up to ~50 miles, but after that just not fun.
So at the end of the day you need to compromise power output vs bike weight. For me 40 Nm is enough to get me up the steepest hills and both bikes (Orbea Gain and Endurance SLe) make riding hilly routes much more fun.
The main notable difference between the two bikes is the stopping power of the hydraulic disc brakes which I highly recommend.