Living in a flat city, I have the opposite philosophy: biking is more fun if you go fast without putting in any effort, and you don't need an e-bike for that: you need an excellent bike that's built reliable.

I have a 2k€ city bike that I bought like a decade ago. Configured for max reliability, it only needed absolutely minimal repairs so far. E.g. it has a belt instead of a chain which I didn't need to touch yet. It was like 200€ out of the 2k, but it not needing maintenance is so convenient.