I have a Specialized Sequoia (not the elite tho!) and I do find it pretty comfortable. I haven't had much experience riding other road bikes, so I probably won't be offering any words of wisdom, but I'll ramble on a little about it anyway!

Firstly, I like that when I go out with the group, I can tell my bike apart from the 20 Treks.

Secondly, I like that I have a triple chain set, and low low gears because I am a terrible climber.

However, I know (too well!) what you mean about leaning on the girly bits. On my old sit-up-and-smile hybrid, I never had any soreness in that region, (but I rarely cycled much more than 100k in a week. My last single ride was longer than that!) and I certainly suffer from it now.

I have the suspension seat post, I can't really tell if it actually makes a difference. I was talking to someone about it before, and they said it was just a gimmick really. My saddle is the Specialized Milano, and I'm considering changing it, but the thought of researching all that info about saddles gives me a headache! After about 2500km, there is a little bit of fraying in the material - I would've expected it to be more resilient than that.