I never quite understood the dislike for double chainrings. Triples, I can understand, because no-one wants to bring "granny" along on their super-fast bikes. But doubles? To each their own, I suppose, so good luck. If it was me (and it's not, so feel free to utterly ignore) I'd think about something like a 50T inner, so as to do that half-step gearing. [Me, I prefer the closer gears out back, but it's not for everyone, I guess.] To deal with the large gear steps, that is.

On my wife's triple, it has a plastic nub near the inner ring, to keep the chain from falling off (inspite of having the FD). That would be less visible than a FD left on for the same purpose.

Is this to set up for a minimalistic commuter?