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@Howard
Reliability - my experience disagrees with this, but obviously that's not data. But what does seem to be consistent is the complexity and expense of repairing / replacing a hydraulic system is greater than a mechanical system.
Durability: I don't care how long my outers and cables last if it takes me 10 minutes to replace them with the same tools I use for my road bike. Having said that my last set of outers / cables lasted three years and two hard seasons. A lot of racers jet wash their bikes here - hydraulics HATE this - it forces dirt into the seals in the caliper...and then the seals fail, and then you have contaminated brake pads and complete brake failure.
The freezing thing - that's interesting. Never experienced that. Wouldn't that freeze mechs and traditional road brakes, too?
Modulation - all the cable pull calipers I've used have had better modulation than cantis and mini-vs. Having said that though Hydraulics will probably win here against static pad designs, agreed. My post that sparked this discussion alluded to this. However to me that's one pro amongst some deal breakers. I also suspect that the modulation on the Spyre might be equal or close enough to a similar hydraulic caliper. We shall see.
Power - not really - pretty much any cable brake that's been set up properly has more power than CX tires have grip.