You should try a 996 SPS for the torque... if you want something involving to ride you don't get any more bad a55 than that... butt clinching in the wet
Enjoy the Duke, it is a difficult and painful (and expensive) experience when they go wrong, but they are not the temperamental italian divas that people make them up to be. As long as you learn about then and how to treat them well, they are relatively trouble free.
10 years of Ducati ownership here and all the issues I had were largely down to inexperience.