The Grant XL shouldn't be as much as the Stryker. Grants can be found, regularly, for under $100. Though beware of them being molested and over-driven. If you see one boasting 40W, walk away. I haven't seen many Strykers selling for much less than $150. Now Ebay has some crazy numbers on a lot of used radios. I would steer away from that unless you can identify the seller as a reputable source. With the auction craze, many people are selling and they don't have any idea about the inner workings of what they are dumping on you.
You may find you like SSB, maybe not. It is nice to have the option, but that is just my opinion. The Grant won't put out the power of the Stryker, but a well tuned Grant is still a rock solid performer. It has clean and crisp audio. A small class A or B amp can always make up the difference in power if DXing is your game. If you do play with SSB, make sure the radio is properly tuned. SSB operators are really serious about clean audio. They will ignore you if you sound muddy, or gang up and make fun of you. Keep your radio's mic gain backed down to a reasonable level and you'll be fine.