Some of the Trek hybrids and comfort bikes have springs in the brakes to make the mushy. They just never will feel solid like a good brake should.
Do you know if they do this for the Trek 7.6 FX? The 7.6 is pretty far up the FX line. I do not remember them being this mushy - but then again - until I put almost 400 miles on the LHT before touching the Trek again I did not have anything to compare against.