Why not AL chameleon, aren't you a Cruz fanboy?My mind is blown that there's hardly any hardtail frames with sliding dropouts. Timberjack is on my short list but supposedly new frame is pretty heavy, not sure if @jimvreeland has info on that.
And then on top of that, most hard tails spec wise is based around cheap bikes with low end components.
If you want baller and steel I'm sure Reeb will build you exactly your needs. Otherwise I would say build your own (stanton) slowly and keep riding that old thing till it breaks.