Welcome to the world of "riding reality". While it's true that racers will use their 53/12 combo on enough occasions to justify carrying these sprockets around I think it's safe to say that a lot of day to day riders will never use that combo of gearing. In my case if I'm on a downhill where it would be suitable to go even faster by shifting to the 53/12 I'm more than content to sit back and let Mother Nature and Grandpa Gravity do the work for me while I gander about enjoying the passing scenery and begin to worry about stopping at the bottom before I rush out into cross traffic

This bit of human energy reality may explain why even my "road" bikes both have MTB cranksets with 44/32/22 ring and 12-28 cassetes. I end up using the smaller sprockets and get a better chainline yet the 44/12 combo is still used generally only when I've got a strong tail wind. The rest of the time I'm two steps up on the 14t. For us older and "trying to stay in shape" codgers I'm finding that it's a nice setup.

So all in all if you find that you're not using the smaller rear sprockets then there really is no shame in switching to smaller rings on the front in order to both improve the chainline and to gain a wider range of USEABLE gearing options.

As for shifting with each stop that's something you want to get past. Bicycles aren't like cars where you need to spin at the best speed to get the power. Instead we are more like trains where there's one gearing and it's more normal to just put the pressure on the pedals and to ease back up to speed. Having said this I will also admit to gearing down as I approach some intersections so that I can make a snappier crossing and expose myself to traffic for a shorter time. Generally I prefer to do that with a quicker double shift of the rear derailleur. I find that the rear shifts are quicker to do. I reserve shifts of the front setup for times when I approach big hills where I know I'll be on the smaller front ring for a while.

And before anyone jumps on the use of MTB gearing for a road bike I'll mention that I can easily get up to around 55 to 58 kph or around 35 mph using the top gear setting. I've done so for giggles on a slight downhill while pedalling like a madman. And I'm still not over spinning at that speed. But I hit the "wall" with the wind. Obviously a racer would laugh at me. But I find there's more folks like me than there are racers or extra strong riders that can actually USE the top gear settings frequently. So I really don't see that setting up a bike with gearing that the rider can fully us is such a styling faux pas.