I personally like disc brakes more, but I think for touring, they really aren't all that necessary.

Any issues with durability seem also kind of pointless to me; chances are you aren't going to be doing anything that will be likely to break them when your bike is loaded. In fact, the *only* time I've had rotors etc. bent was while flying the bike over to the start point of my trips, and even then after the first time with discs I just started taking the rotors off and packing them between two pieces of plywood bolted together.

tl;dr get what you like and stop worrying about other people's opinions.