While I agree with lighter loads and being in good riding condition, there is nothing wrong with having low gearing when you need/want it.
Three of us in our family run 44/32/22 cranks with an 11-34 cassette. That gives us 17.2 gear inches on the 700 c bikes and 15.9 on my daughter's 26" LHT. Coming from a mountain biking background our daughters's bike handling skills were evident on a very hilly loaded tour in the Selkirk Mountains a couple of weeks ago; she easily climbed very steep hills at 3 MPH. My wife is also very good at low speed riding, which is important for her due to the toe overlap on her small framed bike.
From what I have observed, it seems the the folks who have trouble at low speeds are either riding at a low cadence(40 RPM) or are spinning very fast (+100) with little pedal resistance. Also, practicing riding slow is the only way to get good at it.
Last edited by Doug64; 08-10-14 at 10:12 PM.