Are you actually looking to race? You don’t mention.
I got a 29er hardtail (currently rigid fork too but will put a 100mm on at some point) last summer for similar reasons - allows me to do more of my riding off the roads… we have a surprising amount of gravel riding nearby most of which I didnt even know about before I got the bike (nothing compared to US standards I think but a lot of disused railway lines and so on).
Obviously a full sus will be better for actual MTB riding on the whole but it depends what you’re going to be doing each day. I don’t have good MTB on my doorstep so most rides from the house are gravel-ish or with only a little bit of MTB included at the furthest point. Although as it turns out I’m now faster on the downhills at the local trail centres than I was when I was renting 150mm trail bikes - the advantage of riding every week rather than renting once every few months I guess.
The bike I got (on-one whippet) does make a good HT race bike so I’m told.