So, the two cassettes have the same range (11-32), just more cogs gives you narrower steps. That's helpful if you often find yourself either mashing the gears or spinning faster than you're comfortable with. Some people are comfortable in a very wide RPM range. Others need the narrower steps that more gears can give you.

But, I think both your current bike and the Lexa you're looking at have multiple chainrings in the front as well, right? So the gear range could still be different if the largest and smallest chainrings are different.

Think of the gearing on a motor vehicle - it really isn't any different. Sports cars have more speeds so the driver can keep the engine in its most efficient RPM range. Less to do with going fast and more to do with the way the engine is tuned. Big trucks that haul heavy loads have more speeds for the same reason, mostly so they can get started from a stop and accelerate from low speeds. Vehicles that are less finicky about RPMs usually have three to five speed transmissions. So with heavy loaded touring, you'll want more gears, but also if your personal muscle composition favors a narrow range of RPMs. But besides that, if you have multiple front chainrings, you've got the ability to shift the primary gearing, like you do in a tractor, including the lawn tractors you've probably driven. So your chainrings give you two or three ranges within which you fine-tune your gearing with the cassette.

Last thing though, your riding position may be very different on a hybrid vs a road bike, which affects the leverage, which affects how much effort you'll be spending to push the same RPM in the same gear ratio - AND the road bike is probably much lighter, which makes a particular difference on hills. Test riding will show you all of this much better than I can explain it!