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Add me to the list of those who ride with drop bar and never drop. My first road bike had the extra brake levers on my bars. I loved them. In fact I just added a set to my LHT for extra braking power when stopping with a fully loaded trailer.
It does sound like you have your mind made up. But having the extra hand positions available is a real plus. I ride my flat bar mtb on occasion for my commute and my hands do hurt. On the other hand, my daughter has a flat bar road bike and really likes it. My husband added a pair of bar ends that give him an extra place to put his hands on his flat bar bike when we started doing some touring this year. bikerHen
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I have a Bianchi 928 and virtually NEVER ride in the drops. I have zero depth perception and I blame that for my lack of balance. Riding in the drops just makes my imbalance seem more noticeable (plus I have a history of crashing.) I am probably going to add inline brake levers to my bars as the brakes are the only reason I am ever near the drops for any length of time.
If you just don't like the BIKE then I say sell it but expect that you will take about a $300-400 loss. If you like the bike and just don't like the BARS, then definitely try the cheaper route of changing out the bars.
But if you don't like the BIKE nothing you can do to it will change your mind and you will remain dissatisfied. I know I would.
