I'm not really ignorant, nor erroneous, I'm just not trying to fool anyone that riding ebike is same as riding bike
Since I have way too much time on my hands today, I checked if my physics from uni still works, and did some calculations to actually show you, how much you really "cycle" with emopeds
I took for example one of my climbs in my backyard and here are data:
Uphill is 3.63km long and has 425m of ascent. Without going full speed I my time up is about 25min, which considering my weight and bike weight (plus few other factors that matter) brings that to average power of 252W, average speed of 8.7km/h and average climbing rate of 1020m/h.
Now, if I believe Bosch technical data for their ebike motors, and I don't see reason why not to believe them, there are 4 steps of assist. Eco with 60% assist, Tour with 140%, sport with 240% and Turbo with 340%. Now comes interesting part. Since you are suppose to have same workout on ebike as you have on normal bike, this means, I calculated my own 252W plus motor assist and here are data:
own power: 252W
Speed: 8.7km
time: 25:00min
vam: 1020m/h
eco: 60% = 403W (151W motor 252W own power)
Speed: 13.7km
time: 15:55min
vam: 1600m/h
tour: 140% = 604W total (352W motor 252W own power)
Speed: 19.8km
time: 11:00min
vam: 2320m/h
sport: 240% = 856W total (604 motor 252W own power)
Speed: 25.13km
time: 8:40min
vam: 2942
turbo: 340% = 1108W total (856W motor 252W own power)
Speed: 31.1km
time: 7:00min
vam: 3645m/h
So much about being ignorant
If you are riding all the time just on eco, you are 40% faster on that climb, and with 14km/h you would slowly start to have issues riding that trail. If you accidentally turn to Tour mode, you are almost 60% faster and I'm pretty sure there's no way you would ride that trail at 20km/h. Sport and Turbo modes are simply ridiculous, so it's useless to even comment on that.
I guess you can do conclusion out of these data yourself if you are really getting just as much exercise on emtb as you would on normal bike, or you are really just going up with motor and stretching legs adding motor power to the wheels