Leinster: No, I'm not completely opposed. That lowest gear is 21% higher than the FX's, but I might be able to make do.

Options so far are

1) use a triple that actually gives the lower range and not just redundancy- this likely means either get a touring bike or replace a crankset, since almost all the non-touring triples I see are 50/39/30 or such
2) try to get lower range with a compact by trying to install a cassette with a very large cog, either by operating beyond stated derailleur capacity limits and putzing with tension screws or by installing a MTB rear derailleur
3) just live with higher gearing, in which case it seems to me like a 12-32 and a standard compact crank make more sense than a triple. Get in better shape before trying my favorite "Category 1-esque" climb again. Live with the limits the gear range will set on routes and inclines when touring, if and when I do end up touring.

RollCNY: no need to worry about me feeling you're argumentative; I'm glad to have your opinion and I expected there'd be some back and forth. It could well be that the reason the other jumps haven't bothered me is that rolling around on my hybrid for long rides by myself I've usually been more concerned about covering distance and terrain rather than pace. In the future with a real road bike it's possible I might focus on pace more on my own or decide I want to get involved in club rides, and then find that I cared about close spacing more than I do now.

But still, outside of one lower gear when used with the same cassette (and less than that when compared to a compact with a wider cassette), as I look at charts of gain ratios I'm not yet seeing what a 50/39/30 triple buys me in the age of 2x10sp compacts. Are the chainring shifts avoided by having the 39 cog really that frequent, and is shifting chainrings really that much of a problem? Yes, you can also get smaller increments- by switching chainrings and always having to think about which nearly-redundant gear combination is ever so slightly higher than the other. Otherwise, the only difference between the gaps in a 12-30 cassette like the Domane triple uses and those in a 12-32 cassette like what Leinster suggests using with a compact are minor ones at the lower end.

Again, wider triples like those on touring bikes (e.g. the 48/36/26 on the Trek 520, or the still wider one on the Randonee I already mentioned) seem like they have a much more substantive reason for existing.