Hi Benefitsben,
I've got a male syrian in the Barney and he seems happy. My main concern would be making sure you've got deep enough substrate (being limited by tray depth makes me twitch a little) but given that I'm really pretty sure Hydrogen tunnels *under* his substrate, I'd say there's enough, because I've watched for signs of shifting substrate and had no evidence of it when I *know* he's moved from under his house (middle of the cage) to one of the corners.
I had concerns about barred cages before I got Hydrogen, but I think both he and I appreciate the versatility in terms of being able to hang things from walls/the top of the cage: Hydrogen really likes climbing and perching as high as he can get in the cage and likes to observe his domain from the bridge pretty high up in his cage. One thing I would say if you've got a climber: make sure you've allowed for the clumsiness of hamsters. Hydrogen isn't quite the expert climber he thinks he is, so hammocks underneath the higher points of his set up make sure he can't hurt himself
Whichever species you go for, congrats on future ham