I've posted a lot about gearing, mostly about 48-36-26 vs. 44-32-22 crank sets. You can go look at some threads I've posted in. Anyways, my Cross Check had a stock 48-36. When I bought it, though, I asked the LBS to trade out the Tiagra double FD for a Tiagra triple FD and got a 26t granny gear put on it, for free. The intention was to tour with it which I did with a 11-32 cassette. It did really well, considering how much crap I loaded on. It can go as high as 29 or as low as 24. The 36 is good enough for almost 80% of my riding. Sometimes, I'm lucky and catch a long downhill and I can use the 48 to go really fast, but for most everything I use the 36. It's perfect. If I had a 1x9 set up, guess what? It'd be a 36.

But I'm still glad I have that 26 as a bail out gear. With a 26, I feel confident to take any path. The 26/25 gets me as low as I could need for any hill! It's comforting to know it's there, even if I don't use it very much. I really don't see a disadvantage to a triple crank set. Sure you could HTFU and stand, but on some hills, it would mean standing for over 10 minutes and sitting is just more comfortable over distances, at least for me.

Get a triple, you won't regret it.You don't have to use the granny gear, but when you need it, it's there.

edit: I'm 5'11 and 175lbs on a 56cm Cross Check with 48-36-26 / 12-25 on the rear. I've used the front crankset with an 11-32 cassette for touring, but switched back to the 12-25 for commuting/recreational riding. Sometimes, I'll use a pannier but mostly I use my backpack which probably weighs no more than 15lbs at most.