stapfam

Compact to me means different on a mountain bike but Similar principles apply. Many moons ago we had ATB cranksets (48/38/28t) on mountain bikes. For the more severe hills this left the gearing just a bit too high for unfit riders or tired legs- Then our "Compact" came out that was smaller- so less weight- and offered the ability to get lower gearing. I have been riding the Compact gearing ever since- but it does have a drawback. Speed is not a possibility with 44/11 as your highest gearing.
Then I have the Tandem- still an off road machine as that is where it is mainly used. Gearing on that using the the old ATB Crankset, but with a lower small ring of 24 instead of 28, and the rear cassette of 11/32. We do use it on the road, and speed is comparable to the road riders. Front sprockets of 48/36/24 will seem low to you- but I can assure you that for us it is just right- We do stay with the roadies with their 54/52 rings and 12/13 smallest rear sprocket. The only time we run out of gears is downhill and stop pedalling at around 40 mph- then Mass takes over and I would like to find a kami-kazi that could stay with us on any downhill. Even on road rides- It surprises us how many times we will use that 36/32 gearing and with our abundance of steep hills we find that 24 sprocket on quite a few occasions.

If you are finding that your Highest gear is rarely used- or only downhill- then you do not have a gear range that is usable enough. Then find a 15% hill and see if you have a low enough gear.

A seemingly simple way to increase your lower gearing is to put on an 11/32 rear cassette. Seems obvious but will necessitate a change to a Long reach rear Derailler, so is not as cheap an option as originally intended. Still cheaper than changing a Crankset, and is worth doing if you do not want to lose your top end gearing but do require a lower gear for the hills.