I could see why one would not want to commute on a hybrid. During part of the time I commuted, when I was teaching, I had a Jamis Coda in addition to my road bike. It had a rack and a pannier. I never used it to commute (13.8 miles, with some hills) because it felt slow and cumbersome in comparison to my road bike. But, mostly, it was the handlebars. The lack of hand positions got on my nerves. So, I chose to use the road bike, and wear my Camelbak, with the bladder taken out, to bring a few necessities to work. I brought my clothes in on Mondays, in the car.
Now, I already rode much more slowly when I was commuting, as opposed to a recreational ride. Given the fact that I was leaving at 5:45 in the AM, so I could beat some of the traffic, and get to work, clean up, change, and eat before too many others got there, there was a time factor involved. I usually did the ride in about an hour, give or take 5 minutes on either side. That was considerably slower than if I was out for a fitness ride, when I would have arrived in about 50 minutes. If I had been on the Coda, that trip would have taken me at least an hour and 15 minutes, as I never got my average speed past 12.5 on that bike, when I had a pannier on.