Well, this saves me from starting a thread. I'm also a Sequoia owner who's thinking of a new bike with a compact/triple option. I did upgrade my Sequoia a couple years ago, trashing the Sora pieces and going to a 105 triple with 12-27 cassette. So I know what that feels like.

The bike I've got my eye on is a Synapse Carbon 5 that is available with the same 105 setup that I'm now using, or with a compact 54/30 and 12-25 cassette. From reading the posts here, I'm now thinking of going with the double, but maybe installing an almost-new 105 12-27 cassette that I happen to have. I hope this can be done without derailleur or chain-length issues.

In any case, I've almost never been in the 30/27 gear combo on the steepest hills that I'm likely to encounter, so the 34/27 low gear should be sufficient. Thanks for the excellent discussion -- this section always has good info without some of the stuff that goes on elsewhere.