That we have similar philosophies about riding bikes ;)
Sure, but geo numbers don't tell the whole story either, the linkage design of the suspension and the parts spec is going to make a big difference too. Admittedly I don't know much about the Signal Peak other than how it's marketed so I could be completely wrong, but they advertise it as a fast XC bike whereas Transition has always been a more DH oriented company and all the reviews on the Spur seem to agree with that. Again, I could be completely wrong and I haven't actually ridden any bikes in this class, not even the one that I've owned for a month.
Yeah, this is fair. I think you can still learn a lot from demos even on bikes you can't or don't want to purchase though as it helps you narrow down parameters.