First triathlon bike?

If you're already riding a bike well then you should be able to get it with a tri bike. They feel different and will likely take a few rides to adapt though.

A lot of bikes these days will be at least ok in terms of quality, but more important is knowing your fit position. Then you can see what bikes will fit to that without resorting to oddly sized pieces to make it work. That will help keep the bike more balanced and handling as intended too.

Endurance and Race are more to help categorize how the bikes may fit as opposed to classifying what they should be used for. Endurance tends to be too high & too short in reach for me, so my arms get bunched up. That makes the load more difficult for my shoulders & arms to handle as things won't really be in line. I'm better off with the more race position, and have been on rides of 6-7 hrs or so, and even up near 10 on one.

The tri bike really needs a good fit. Just trying in the lot might give a vague impression, but it's not long enough of a time. In this case it might help expose the OP to some of the differences as there may not be any experience with one at all otherwise. The bikes can also be adjusted more than what people may suspect by swapping out spacers, stems, and maybe some other parts. With a good fit specific bike setup, the shop can move the saddle, bar, and pedal position quite easily. They can even swap these out in seconds with a great setup. From here, they'll get the coordinates of the contact points and be able to say what bikes & size should be a good match.

With regards to components, the better stuff does work better, but tends to be hyped up just how much. Current 105 is actually pretty good. I've had Ultegra & Dura Ace before and didn't feel the need for it with a bike I just bought. Tiagra might also be good too, but I think that may be limited to 10 spd.

If you can find an independent fitter you can get your numbers that would be matched up with bikes in the market.  Then you can look at the used market too to save some $ for race wheels and such!   There's a database list on ST that you could use for reference to see if there is anyone in your area.

The suggestion is to understand fit first, and then see what may work from there. In a recent discussion not too different than this one, another guy I'm the same height as found a bike that was a better fit for him since he wanted to upgrade. Except that for him the pads are a couple inches higher than what works best for me. That takes a notably different bike frame to work with. We ended up with the same size frame, but they're from different manufactures and have substantially different geometry, with his being much taller. That's why going right to the question of "What's a good bike" is backwards even though it may seem common sense at first. This isn't going custom at this point. It's only sizing things up to make an educated selection. The parts mentioned before are interchangeable for the very reason of making the bike fit better.