Have you looked at the new Sportster? The one with inverted forks, fuel injection, and six-piston front discs? Other than the Harley “look”, it’s very much a high-performance machine.
I went from the Blast to a series of Hondas -- a 750 cruiser, a VTX-1800 and finally a Goldwing. Sadly, the Goldwing production line is moving from the USA to Japan.
Problem is that they also run about $12K or more and still have a tiny little fuel tank.
I owned a Buell S2 for a while, great bike, but still chained to that Harley engine that does not have the power or sophistication to run with the rest of the world. By the time Buell started using the Rotax engines it was likely already too late, and still they were $12K for the bikes that are competing for buyers at the $10K mark.