Disc brakes are great - especially for technical courses.
But if it's only ever gonna be a race bike... Canti's are king.

I like canti's, have you looked at H Plus Son rims? H+ have a machined brake track and are all black.

Ssalmon, they will not be black for very long, when used in cross, though.

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I am going through the same thought process at the moment. I want to be able to swap rims between the CX and my road bikes, so counts the disc option out. My research was then leaning me to mini v's (trp cx8.4), which are relatively light and considered more
Powerful than canti's. for me I will be predominantly be on trails, so mud clearance not a massive issue.

Interested in other points if view though.

Do you not have thru axles on your XC? That would re-complicate it.

Unless you have huge downhill sections, I haven't had any issues with cantis. If you're getting a custom frame, get disc tabs for sure...disc will only get better and better.

If you have thru axels on your xc, you could get the whiskey thru axle disc fork... I suppose the H plus rims would eventually turn silver, but I think the anodizing is pretty durable, but who knows?

I'm trying MTB BB7's after trying the road BB5 and BB7 with SRAM, and then the Hope V-Twin (again with SRAM).

TRP HY/RD seems interesting.

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In my experience as a mechanic and salesman at a shop, disc brakes combined with road levers is far from a match made in heaven. Integrated levers are designed around specific cable pull ratios. This can affect interchangeability between brands but interchangeability between caliper/cantilever and disc systems can also be difficult to combat as a technician. The fickle nature of the BB5 and BB7 road calipers on the market leave me disappointed with the industry's lack of foresight in engineering a solution to this problem, but there are certainly ways to fix this. Eric Noren of Peacock Groove (love or hate him but you better respect him) has solved this problem wonderfully by moving the pivot point on his campagnolo levers. Creative mechanics, well-thought out component matching, and the time to test ideas, reevaluate, and revise can sometimes do as much to solve problems as a cohesive component group manufacturing from companies that take their time with prototyping and product testing.